Bye Bye Binki

I've heard of other parents whose babies begin sleeping through the night the first night home from the hospital and those who have their babies potty trained by eighteen months. Not me. Nope, I've never been blessed with that kind of baby. I guess God figured I could use the patience. Having said that, I just recently had my first experience in the otherwise unknown territory of parenting bliss.

A week and a half ago, Joel announced to Matt that he didn't want his binki any more. The kid who couldn't be quieted from a meltdown unless he had his binki, couldn't ride in the car unless he had his binki, couldn't take a nap, sit through church, listen to a book, watch a video or go night night without his binki, said he didn't want his binki any more. We were stunned.

Matt asked Joel if he was quite sure he wanted to get rid of his binkis. "Do you want me to throw them in the garbage?" Matt asked. "Ep (yep)," Joel replied. I had been mentally girding myself for a major binki battle for a couple of months. Every time I'd think, "I've got to get Joel off the binki," I would shove the idea to my mental back burner. I remember all too well our experience with trying to get Lydia to give up her binki. We talked and negotiated with her, read the Miss Piggy book "Bye, Bye Binki" over and over, took the binki away from her, regretted it after major crying fits ensued and then gave the binki back to her again. In desperation, I finally took all of her binkis and put them in a little gift bag for her to give to her pediatrician. We told him he could give the binkis to the little babies who needed them. Talk about withdrawal. Matt and I had to sleep with her to help her get through those first few nights sans bink.

Instead of throwing the binkis in the garbage, as Joel advised, we put them high up in the cupboard (without his knowledge), just in case. I hid one binki in my purse and took it in the car and to church all last week in the event an emergency should arise. Joel did look in the garbage once last week. "My binki, Momma," he said with the most pitiful little voice. I just said, "Oh, you don't need that anymore" and then diverted his attention elsewhere. Joel did have a hard time settling down to sleep at nap time and night time last week, but he was quite satisfied to look at animal picture books as a substitute for his binki and he seems to have relearned how to put himself to sleep without it. He even took the long car ride to grandma's without any complaints. Amazing!

I had hoped to potty train Joel this summer when he could easily run around the house in underwear, but he's shown absolutely no signs of readiness and I've learned from (hard/bad) experience that's it's just not worth it to push training before the child is really ready. I'd rather clean a mess in a diaper than a mess off the floor. I'm sure I'd have plenty of people disagree with me on that one, including my very beloved grandma who is now in Heaven. I can hear her now, "I had your mother potty trained by the time she was eighteen months old."