Binky Liberation Day!

Last week Alisha took Brooklyn (the little girl that I babysit) to a dentist. Their dentist told them that the binkies really need to go before the child is 18 months old or it can affect their teeth long term. So, Alisha cut up Brooklyn's binkies and had her help throw them away. Oliver will be 18 months old on September 4th. I've been thinking about taking his binkies away for a while, but didn't want to do it while Brian was in Denver and we were traveling all about this summer. No need to make extra trama. But, now the timing was right, especially since Brooklyn will show up Tuesday morning binky-less. Mom told me that Heather (we think) wrote one of her kids a story about them to help them get rid of something, so that's what I did. I wanted it to be kind of fun and special and I wanted him to be somewhat prepared. So, for several days I talked to Ollie about throwing away the binkies on Sunday. Then today, we went to the Bowles house for our usual Sunday night dinner where we had what I have been calling Oliver's "big boy" party. Just before we left and on the way there he had a binky in his mouth and one in each hand. He was saying his last goodbyes, I think. We ate dinner and let him play for a while. Then, I busted out the story that I made. We read the story with cute pictures of him as a baby with a binky and now as a big boy who doesn't need a binky to do fun, big boy things. Then we all walked outside with him to the big garbage. I held him up and started to throw away the binkies (we had several). He was reluctant to let go, but finally did with a little help. We closed the lid and everyone clapped and cheered for him. From then on, I tried to make it a fun, Ollie focused time. We ate cake, jumped on the trampoline, learned to play Ring Around the Rosies, played with cool toys, and even stayed to let him take a bath in a real bathtub (I just forgot to bring him jammies which is why he's only wearing a diaper in that one picture)! It turned out to be really fun and actually went pretty much just how I wanted it to go. And tonight when we got home, he went to bed without a binky like a champ! Just a couple of whimpers and that was it; no big fuss or loud crying. He handled it beautifully! I am so proud of my big boy!