This is Josh going to sleep at 4 months old - binky in his mouth and beloved woobie at his side.
Sadly, at 22 months old not much has changed. Augie Doggie has seen better days and the binkies take up a lot less of his face now, but this is still a critical part of our bedtime uniform.
I'm the one that gave Joshua the binky. At the time, I thought that I didn't have a choice - when your 3 week old baby is trying to nurse on everyone who gets within range, it seems like the obvious solution.
But after nearly two years, I've grown to hate that damn binky. I mean hate. We can't live without it - total disaster strikes 10 times a day when we can't find one of the 8000 binkies we own. And I crawl under the crib and dig them out by the handful, and all is right in the world again.
When I was little, my sister had this stupid stuffed Hudsons Santa Bear called Pudgy-Bear. And Meagan couldn't live without Pudgy. So once on our way to Florida we realized we didn't have Pudgy. Trust me when I tell you that it was the END OF THE WORLD for Meg. Seriously. I think we even had to drive back from Ohio to get Pudgy. This is what I fear may lie ahead for us...
I'm over it. WAY over it. But he's not, and has not shown any signs of getting over it anytime soon. I think he actually falls more madly in love with his binky every day. He actually giggles gleefully when he sees it and cries out "binky!" - it's kind of cute but mostly sad.
So today I tried something - I just didn't give it to him. I have a friend who suggested that - she had just tried it with her son, at another friend's suggestion.
And you know what? So far, he hasn't cared! He saw it a couple times & asked, but I just said no and we moved on...he never got upset. So we'll see how this really works out - but for now, it's 10 pm and he's been in bed for almost 3 hours, bink-free. I'm holding my breath - are you?
Once again, Josh slept on a dog bed while I shopped at Target.
