Bye-Bye Binky

Today our son probably took his first nap ever without his beloved binky. Truthfully, it's been a long time coming. He had become that kid that you would have to ask to take it out of his mouth so you could have a conversation. He is 2 and a half (I want to cry as I type that) and we let him hang onto it this long because we were nervous about the transition to him having a baby brother, didn't want to take away something as he was feeling a little like his world had changed. Somewhere in the past 6 months binky or "Bink" took on a life-like persona. Kolt would talk about it like it was a pet or best friend. We didn't really do anything to discourage him. My sisters and I all had binkies growing up, although I think only 1 of us had trouble letting it go.  It seemed as if my husband and I had missed the window of opportunity to get rid of the binkies, while Kolt didn't seem so interested in it. I spent last night reading other blogs I had pinned on Pinterest on how to help him let it go. Some of the ideas were really involved.....throwing a big boy party, planting it and having a plant grow, put it in a build a bear, cutting holes in them, letting him trade it for something like a big or expensive toy, tying it to a helium balloon and letting go. I felt like all those scenarios would just make it more traumatic. It really is a comforting item, watching it soar towards the clouds??? Really?

 

My husband came home for lunch today and I said we are going to try his nap today with no binky, just move toward only having it at bedtime. (Some weeks ago we had progressed to just having it while sleeping, or hurt/sick). I then told my husband next week we would go "cold turkey". He said, "I will need to go away for awhile" lol Neither one of us has looked forward to this transition. I was all set to start reserving bye bye-binky books at the library and show Kolt the Elmo video on YouTube where they say goodbye to their binky and then it was naptime. He asked for his binky and instead of saying just no I found myself saying, "binky went bye-bye". I felt a twinge as he repeated "bye-bye?" that is when I knew my husband and I were possibly more attached to binky than him. We joked about binky a lot, spent time looking for them, they had their own spot in our kitchen, we never planned an outing without having one or two on us and we in fact talked about binky like he was a person too. Kolt asked once more before falling asleep for it and I echoed once again, "binky went bye-bye".  No more questions, not 1 single tear. We underestimated him all together. No bribery needed or fancy shenanigans - he could handle it. I sent my husband a text saying he didn't cry so we should probably just run with it.....his response, "that's sad, poor binky". Full disclosure we morn every growth thing that happens in our household.  Most families seem to celebrate these things and we make sad faces and wallow in the face of reality that babies don't stay babies. Our 7 week old moved to size 1 diapers over the weekend.  We made the sad face and lamented over it.  Every other day I find my husband saying, "remember when he used to....." and I always quickly fire back "I don't want to talk about it."

 

We as parents sometimes make things so complicated and don't give our children nearly enough credit all in the end game to try and make their lives perceived better or easier.  I can't very well pull a binky out now at bedtime tonight when I have already declared it went bye-bye. So in fact today has become cold turkey day.