Bear and His Frog

I used to cringe and commence with the internal criticizing when I saw people who had let their kids keep their binkis or bottles too long. My pediatrician always told me that if my kids had a habit that needed breaking, it was easier to do it before they were 18 months. Lauren, Ben and Rachel all had their pacifiers taken away by then, but with Hayden I just haven't been able to bring myself to pull the plug. I totally get it now & feel apologetic toward those nameless parents I have criticized over the years!

I've tried...more or less (emphasis on the less). The kid goes to bed like a dream. All he needs is a bed, blanket, drink and his "kiki". We put him in bed, he blows us a kiss and that's it. Seriously, why would I disrupt that? The naggy part of my brain told me it was time to eliminate the binki, if for no other reason than for his teeth (lets face it, our kids are headed for orthodontia anyway but I don't need to make it worse for them than it has to be). I determined that we would break him of his little habit by his second birthday.

With the best of intentions I took the kids to the mall one evening in early December. Armed with the binkis (and there were many in the arsenal) we headed for Build-a-Bear. I thought I was a genius. How much better does it get than to let the kid choose an animal and stuff the kiki's into it? Since Rob was home with a migraine, I didn't have the proper parental backup for the kid-store-holiday-shopping-madness.

By the time Hayden had picked out the darling little frog, the other 3 kids were DONE!!! I told Bear it was time to stuff the frog with the Kiki's and he went ballistic! He grabbed the handful of binkis and bolted for the door! After capturing my escapee, I made the executive decision to admit defeat, take the frog, un-stuffed, and go home. Into the top of my closet went the frog.

Fast forward to the end of February. While getting something out of the closet I knocked down the bag with the sad, limp frog body. Bear snatched it up and was excited to find a "fog". Being the mean mom I am, I took it back and told him that it was for big boys that didn't need kiki's.

"Mine fog"

After more negotiations, and dropping off morning carpool, we were headed for the mall once again. I doubted this was going to work. If by some miracle it did and we got the kiki's into the frog, I knew that we'd have a decapitated amphibian by Sunday night.

He was so excited to shove the remaining three kiki's (we'd lost about 4 kiki's since Christmas) into the frog. Bear giggled as he squished it and could feel his beloved kikis inside the frogs tummy! It was going great

UNTIL NAPTIME!

9th grade biology class kept flashing in my mind. Poor frogs never saw it coming! I prayed Bear's new stuffed buddy, Kiki-the-Frog, wouldn't suffer a similar fate. Well Sunday night has arrived, and outside of the fact that at naptime I have to lay down beside Hayden to get him to sleep (darn, a nap for mom too?) he is taking it all very well!

Let's hope that this holds out and Bear adapts to kiki-less life easily and quickly. (I think I spoke too soon...he just started crying & doesn't seem to want to stop!)