Just because this idea was too amazing NOT to share:
Build-A-Bear
Pacifiers
Weaning
Merry-Go-Round
Mall
I don't know how to build this one up, other than the fact that both of our children use pacifiers, and Emme just turned 2. So, in order to make sure her teeth grow in right and don't affect the teeth or her speech- we need to wean her off. We are so weak- I'm sure I've mentioned this somewhere. We give into them because they are sick, they are sad, they are teething, they love them, we just have any reason why they can have them again. So, COLD TURKEY was the only way to go. But, seriously, you can't just rip something away from them that they've used for 2 years everyday and night, and love so much. So I did some research and found the perfect idea! So perfect that I called Tom right away to announce the idea and see if we could do it that night.
So, Friday night (because he's home most of the weekend to help) we went to the mall. Little did we know they had a HUGE puppy adoption thing going on so she got to pet tons of little mini puppies (AW!). It was so much fun just with the puppies alone, but Emme loves the mall and LOVES build-a-bear. We have one from my baby shower for her, and she's gotten one on her first and second birthday now. We figured what better way than use build-a-bear to celebrate this HUGE step in her little life. So we went into build-a-bear and picked out matching bears for her and Mike. Waiting through the crazy long line, we finally got up to the stuffing machine. She happily shoved her pacifiers in the bear, said "BYE PACI'S!" "I LOVE YOU!", and gave the bear a big hug. She gave the bear a bath and helped with Michael's bear. We didn't get any clothing or anything- 1. Michael is too little to have anything hanging off the bear, 2. It's a PACI bear, nothing else. We wanted them to focus on the bear needing the paci's more than they did.
[Insert the fact that Mike still uses paci in his crib, we couldn't do that to him at 9 months]
But, the trip was fun, Emme got to ride the merry-go-round like always. She's the best at riding the horses, she waves to everyone and gets so excited when she see's me or daddy around the corner.
We got in the car- everything seemed to be going great. UNTIL- bed time. She asked for Paci and Daddy said "You are going to have to talk to bear about that, Emme". After explaining to her that bear needed the paci's and they were in his heart. He said she started choking the bear... i'm cracking up at this point. She was really mad at the bear at first. I won't be surprised if we go in there one night and the bears stuffing is spread around her room.
But, a couple days later- She LOVES the bear, she sleeps with him and cuddles with him. She understands that he has the paci's and can even feel them in bear. It's so sweet how she is with her stuffed animals. Perfect weaning idea. She does have her moments where she still gets mad at the bear- but we just talk to bear about it and she realizes after a while that bear has them and if she hugs better she will feel better, just like she did with paci's.
I don't know if anyone freaked out as much as I did when I saw this idea, but it worked great. It's not Tuesday and both of them are doing great without pacifiers all day and night. Michael never freaks out, the only time he ever needs it is when he's sleeping. He still doesn't have any teeth so it's helping him through teething. I love my babies and hate to hurt them by taking the pacifier's away, but I don't think they'll be upset about it forever. I'm sure we would've lost them within the week anyway... ;-)
