Ode to the bink

On Friday when Kevin picked up Justin from the sitter's house, he forgot one MAJOR thing. He forgot the infamous....bink. When I became a mom at first, I had these notions of "never letting my child get hooked on the bink." Well, it was a lifesaver when we were weaning. I just let him use the bink more and more and wa-lah...he was weaned. Well, because of that, his one-time lovey, me, was gone and he moved on to bigger and better things as a lovey. Yup, the bink. It was quite hilarious at times to see him running and running and then you pop that in his mouth and it's like the timer went off in his brain and he instantly settled down and went to sleep. In church, it made him just slump and relax during sacrament meeting.

Well, I had to pay the sitter anyhow, so I quickly went back to the sitter's house that night to drop off the check, but we all know it was to pick up the bink. She wasn't home. Great. I had no baby binks left (back up plan F) so we were going to go at this weaning thing COLD TURKEY on the poor kid. I didn't even get a chance to talk to him about it. Needless to say, it was an interesting night. I should first warn you, as of his 2nd birthday, we moved him into a toddler bed. Which the first night, he promptly fell out twice in one hour. We got that solved, he doesn't fall out anymore. But he does stand up and just stare out his window, very quietly. He only gets loud if he sees the cat outside and then I know he is up. So we played that game all night. He also kept sneaking up and grabbing toys for his bed and playing, loudly. So finally he fell asleep at like 9:15. He was in bed at 7. I wasn't sure how naps were going to go, since it is daylight. That took an extra hour to get him down and I ended up putting him in his crib to keep him from getting up.

Well, today is day 5 without the bink and he has been doing very well. I was actually surprised at how easy it was with him. He has asked a few times for it and I just told him we don't have it anymore. If he has a book or his "horseys" with him in bed, he does okay and sometimes goes right to sleep and other times, talks and then falls asleep. At least he is staying in his bed. It was hard the 2nd night when he woke up in the middle of the night and wanted his bink to help him fall back asleep. He's cried a bit longer, but we are surviving!! We are officially done and I hope he doesn't remember it when the baby comes!!

Even though I am happy he is over it and we have moved on with things in his life, it's a little sad. His crib and bink were his last links to babyhood. Weaning was hard and now this. It's sad to see him be so "big" and grown-up. I know every mom has gone through it, and yet is extremely happy to see them become "big" kids and doing things on their own. It just makes me sad to see him not my baby anymore. It's bitter-sweet. At least he is noticing other babies and it is making him a bit more ready for this baby. He'll do great and be very very loving. So alas, so long bink and maybe we'll see you with the next baby! If not, then farewell forever!