Tuesday, July 12, 2011

A Step



I was looking at him, the other day, and I thought, "We can do this! You and I, we can."

You see, it seems, with children, and the sort of jumping over the hump of whatever challenge they are facing, it's often the parent who needs to get the heck over it, less than the child.

As it has been with the blasted binky. See, the binky has been Oliver's dearest friend in the world for most of his life. He is my first lover-of-the-paci. The first two had absolutely no interest. But due to Oliver's issues with breastfeeding, and all things that went with it, a pacifier became our lifesaver, he and I.

But he's well past two now. He's getting to be more outspoken and opinionated every day. He's a "big boy." He was getting there.

Mama, on the other hand, relied heavily on the binky as a "you can go to sleep now because you have your binky!" crutch.

A crutch for a lame mama.

But ther other day, I was looking at him and he was chatting and talking and laughing, and I saw. We can do it.

I didn't say a word, I just slipped in before bed and removed his entire stash (there were six). I stuck them in a drawer, high and away. I wasn't willing to actually throw them away. What if I caved, and needed them? Derek wasn't home, off at work. If we failed, we'd just keep our attempt our little secret.

There were some tears, some "Please binky, please!" (The politeness nearly broke my heart!) But I hugged him and sang and laid him down three different times, and his brothers, his sweet big brothers cheered him on. "Oliver! You're a big boy!" and that night much earlier than I expected, he went to sleep.

The next day, at nap time, he simpy whined for it once, and then drifted off.

I still have those binkies in the drawer, but we're good. He's clean. I'm clean. We're sober.

He's just so awesome.

Go Oliver!
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3 comments:

Alice said...

True confession: I totally am crying after reading this post. He really is a big boy. When did that happen? This whole baby thing goes much too fast. Let's cling to Ez for a little while longer! Man, I miss those little boys! Thanks so much for sharing them with me and making me feel like an important piece of their little lives. What a special thing it is to share wee ones! Love it!

Mandy and Chris said...

Way to go Oliver! I wish I could do the same with Cole - he is soooo attached to his bink!

Morgan Hagey said...

Alice, come home soon!

Mandy- I waited and waited because I wanted him to be big enough to understand what was happening. You can't explain it to a 1 year old. :)

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