I decided that on or around Jacob turning TWO I wanted to say goodbye to the binki. As much as I love the binki, I hate it too! It has definitely always been a nice "plug" and definitely calms Jacob down. The binki also always ended up in all of our pictures and it was a pain to have to clean when it fell on the ground, having to make sure we had spares every where we went and blah blah blah...
I had to strageically plan the binki farewell, it was a long thought out process. With Miguel being out of town I had to pick a time when I had several days off work so I could deal with Jacob if it turned out to be a catastrophe. I thought March 7 would be the perfect day, a few days before his birthday so he wouldn't be too upset for the big day and I had about 6 days off. I debated about how this was going to work. Many people told me to just let him have it for naps and bed, but I really wanted to just be done with it and not have to worry about the whole weaning process. I thought I would have Jacob gather all his binki's and then throw them in the garbage and take the garbage out and we'd be done. I also thought about having him give them to my dad because whenever he sees my dad he always gives his binki up to him. I wasn't sure what to do...
The big day came. I ended up going to Target and just thought I would see if Jacob would want to pick out a toy in exchange for his binki. I wasn't sure if he would understand this concept, but it was worth a shot. We walked up and down the toy aisles at Target for long enough. He was tired and wasn't really interested in the whole idea. Oh well, maybe next time. Later that night after dinner I gathered Jacob's binki's up in a Ziploc bag and we went to Walmart. I wanted to try again before having him throw them in the garbage. We walked up and down the toy aisles for a while and same sort of thing, he liked some toys, but didn't quite get it, wasn't really attached to one specific toy. I had enough and we were getting ready to go and then...he saw it...the toy he wanted, he pointed and yelled. It was one of those noisy corn popper things that you push around. He had seen these in the store before, but we never got one. Well, okay, I thought. I had him put his last binki (the one from his mouth) in the Ziploc bag and I told him he could give his binki's to the cashier and we could buy the toy. I explained this over and over while walking to the front of the store. I am pretty sure he still didn't really get it. So here we are in line and Jacob had his bag of binki's. He kept trying to set them on the counter and I told him to wait our turn. Our turn came and I quietly told the cashier to "play along." I told Jacob to hand his binki's to the cashier and sure enough he did it!! The cashier then handed Jacob his popper! (I had the cashier put the binki's in my bag just in case this didn't work out). So we left, popper in Jacob's hand and no binki's. As we were walking out to the car I told Jacob to wave goodbye to his binki's that he gave the nice man and he waved. That was it. Binki's gone...
When we got home he asked for it a couple of times and I told him he got the toy instead. He was fine with it. Jacob does have a little blanket that he likes and so I hope that helps him calm instead of the binki. He did have a hard time going to bed the first night, and taking a nap the next day, but overall he has only asked for it a few times and I have just told him he has a toy instead. I know bedtime and nap time is going to be a little rough for a few days, but overall I think it's going pretty well. It has only been 24 hours though so we'll see....
Not a great picture, but getting ready to "turn in" the binki's
New toy!
Asleep (in mom's bed) without the binki
