Bye-bye, Bippy

The vestige of babyhood...we finally bid farewell to this icon.

How funny my children were about their pacifiers. Hannah had ONE. She never was concerned about more than one. She rarely misplaced or lost it. We replaced it with IDENTICAL ones periodically as they got beat up. When she was somewhere around three, she got mad at me at naptime one day and threw her "binky" at me. I took it and tossed it. She cried for 10 minutes or so, then that was it. No more binky for her.

Scotty, on the other hand, needed MANY "bippies" in his crib. He had one CONSTANTLY. We put lots in his crib because they fell out a lot. We started weaning him from them when we got here...sort of. We noticed that he seemed to have one in his mouth all the time. So we would leave them in his crib...and he'd go get them. So we started locking them up and using them only at nap and bedtime. If we weren't vigilant about putting them in the closet and locking the door, he would sneak them out. He'd hide in his room, his closet, OUR closets...with his "bam" (blanket) and the bippy. We always called him out on it. I think he knew the clock was counting down on his bippy time.

Two days ago, he'd had a particularly rough evening. Scott had the kids outside while I finished the Mother's day gifts (see about 3 posts down!). When it was time to come in, Scotty fell apart. He wanted his bippy. I got tired of hearing him whine for it after about 30 minutes, so I said, "That's IT...no more bippy." I figured I was in for a few rough nights, though. He was STILL crying, almost an hour after coming in. I changed him, put him into his pajamas, and settled him down for a story. By the end of the first story, he'd stopped crying and was being "a brave boy". He said, "I not a baby no more, I a BIG boy. I no need my bippy." Sniff, sniff....

And to his credit, he went to bed without it. He tried one last time to ask for it; I firmly said no. He accepted it. And slept all night long, not waking up crying "I need my bippy!" And he did it again last night. We're past that hump. One more step into boyhood. Now for POTTY TRAINING....ugh.

Bye-bye, Bippy. You had a good run.