Bye Bye Binkie

Atticus the 3 year old and Lolo the 5 year old both are addicted to pacifiers. Neither sleeps without one or rides in a vehicle without one. It was way past time for them to give up the habit. We all know the bad things about it such as guaranteed braces, etc.

I had not pushed the issue and the wife enjoyed the little peace the pacifier brought her throughout her day. However still sucking on a pacifier at five is a little too far! The wife and I came to an agreement that the binkies had to go.

The twins preschool teacher just had a baby. So we made a big deal of giving all the binkies to the new baby. I made a "Binky Box" where they were supposed to keep the pacifiers from one week prior up to today when they gave them away to the baby. Sometimes they put the pacifier in the box but most times they didn't.

We had binkies strewn all over the house from one end to the other and across all three floors. The wife did a good job of rounding them up and cutting a hole in the end to render then unusable.

Psychologically I think Lolo was more prepared than Atticus. She is old enough to know that no one else in her class uses one. She has slept over at a friends house without one and she camped out with her father witout one. Lolo shed some major tears at first for about three minutes before bedtime. But she accepted it and has fallen asleep without incident. In fact she and her sister sleep together and her sister (the one addicted to her blankie and thumb) was raising hell because she wanted to read another book and I said no because it was well past their bedtime. Lolo went to sleep and I have not heard from her since which was about three hours ago.

Atticus on the other hand is a little different. He played the big game fine. He normally does not go to sleep when you close the door. He likes to stay up to play for about an hour before he falls asleep. He did this tonight as well but when he got tired and wanted to go to sleep he exited his room and went to our room where mommy was sleeping. He got in bed with her and I think that is where they are now. Atticus sleepig with us in our bed is out of the ordinary- it only happens on rare occasions in fact almost never. I am not sure if he and the wife are still in our room or if the wife took him to his room and laid down in bed with him there.

Maybe just one more night of trauma without the binkies and then it will be all over.