A few days after the twins turned 3, we had a big event in our home.
We said good-bye to binkys.
When they turned 1, we made it a rule that binky's were for bedtime/naptime/car rides only. They could only have them in their cribs or carseats. It was around that time that Abbey and Luke deemed them "Ni-Nights".
Truthfully, both kids probably could have handled saying goodbye to them sooner than this, but I was just not willing to do anything that could mess with our sleep. I guess I'm still traumatized from their first 1.5 years of terrible sleeping, that now that we're all sleeping so wonderfully all night long (*knocks on wood*), why on earth would I want to do ANYTHING to jeopardize that!?? Plus it seemed like anytime we'd get to talking about it, we always had something come up - an illness, or trip planned, etc - where it just didn't seem like a good time to take them away.
In my mind I'd always said three years was the cutoff though. So, a few weeks before their 3rd birthday we started talking to them about how soon we'd be saying good-bye to their ni-nights, but we'd be getting new lovies instead! And we talked about how they were about to be Big Kids, and Big Kids don't need ni-nights anymore.
As much as we played up the "Big Kid" card, I didn't want to make getting older a bad thing...like you become a Big Kid and all your comforts are taken away from you, ya know? So this seemed like a good compromise.
So...the Monday after their party, we collected all the ni-nights from the basket in their bedroom, and any that were in both cars. We gathered them in bags and Luke and Abbey carried them themselves so they really had a visual for what was going on.
All bagged up and ready to go!
We said good-bye to binkys.
When they turned 1, we made it a rule that binky's were for bedtime/naptime/car rides only. They could only have them in their cribs or carseats. It was around that time that Abbey and Luke deemed them "Ni-Nights".
Truthfully, both kids probably could have handled saying goodbye to them sooner than this, but I was just not willing to do anything that could mess with our sleep. I guess I'm still traumatized from their first 1.5 years of terrible sleeping, that now that we're all sleeping so wonderfully all night long (*knocks on wood*), why on earth would I want to do ANYTHING to jeopardize that!?? Plus it seemed like anytime we'd get to talking about it, we always had something come up - an illness, or trip planned, etc - where it just didn't seem like a good time to take them away.
In my mind I'd always said three years was the cutoff though. So, a few weeks before their 3rd birthday we started talking to them about how soon we'd be saying good-bye to their ni-nights, but we'd be getting new lovies instead! And we talked about how they were about to be Big Kids, and Big Kids don't need ni-nights anymore.
As much as we played up the "Big Kid" card, I didn't want to make getting older a bad thing...like you become a Big Kid and all your comforts are taken away from you, ya know? So this seemed like a good compromise.
So...the Monday after their party, we collected all the ni-nights from the basket in their bedroom, and any that were in both cars. We gathered them in bags and Luke and Abbey carried them themselves so they really had a visual for what was going on.
All bagged up and ready to go!
We've been past our days of needing a stroller when running a 1-on-2 defense out in public for awhile now. Luke and Abbey do pretty good to stay close and hold hands when required of them. But while at the mall I saw these super cool Firetruck double strollers, and began to think it *might* be a good idea to have a way to contain my children, lest they decide to become tantrum throwing demons when it was time to leave the store without their beloved Ni-Nights.
So I see the sign that says something about 50 cents. I immediately deem 50 cents being totally worth it, and let the kids get all kinds of excited about the Firetruck stroller. I mean they were psyched. And then I realized that 50 cents was the credit upon return. To rent the stroller, it was $7.00. SEVEN DOLLARS to rent the super cool Firetruck stroller.
Crap.
Not wanting to put my kids in a foul mood right before they said goodbye to their Ni-Nights, I proceeded to pay seven freaking dollars to rent a stroller for a little over an hour. (David if you are reading this, consider this my lip-bitten confession)
...and off we went!
Once inside the store, Abigail immediately picked out a white kitty cat (which seems to be her current Love Language), while Lucas settled on a brown doggy.
Have ya'll ever been to Build-A-Bear before? It's so fun! Once the kids had picked out which animal they wanted, we took the "shell" of the animals over to where they would be stuffed. There each kiddo got to pick out a heart to put inside their animal, and step on the pedal to turn on the stuffing machine themselves...
Luke was encouraged to rub the heart on his muscles so his doggy would have a strong heart =)
After they were stuffed to satisfaction, they needed a good (air) bath and brushing...
Once our new animal friends were good to go, we went up to the cashier and handed over our bags of ni-nights as payment. (Momma also handed over her debit card on the sly). I was so impressed with the cashier, she was SO encouraging of the kids and kept saying how they were such Big Kids now, and how they were going to love their new puppy/kitty.
All in all, it was a very smooth transition. Of course that very night Abbey came down with 103 fever and was throwing up.
Not. Awesome.
But we survived and the kids have only asked about their ni-nights a handful of times, and we just remind them that they have new lovies now. Easy peasy.
(Although, during a fit the other evening, Ab's did ask for her ni-night and when I reminded her we didn't have them anymore, she sobbed "but can we please go back to that store and see if that lady is done with them yet?!?" But really, that was more just part of her fit than truly a ni-night missing, in my opinion)
Luke has named his doggy Dory, and Abbey has named her kitty Gnocchi-Gnocchi-Abbey-Kitty. (Gnocchi is the name of the kitty in Curious George)
They are both well loved and well cared for, in fact, I found Gnocchi-Gnocchi-Abbey-Kitty lovingly tucked into Momma and Daddy's bed the other day for a nap =).
Big Kids indeed.
...and off we went!
Once inside the store, Abigail immediately picked out a white kitty cat (which seems to be her current Love Language), while Lucas settled on a brown doggy.
Have ya'll ever been to Build-A-Bear before? It's so fun! Once the kids had picked out which animal they wanted, we took the "shell" of the animals over to where they would be stuffed. There each kiddo got to pick out a heart to put inside their animal, and step on the pedal to turn on the stuffing machine themselves...
Luke was encouraged to rub the heart on his muscles so his doggy would have a strong heart =)
After they were stuffed to satisfaction, they needed a good (air) bath and brushing...
Once our new animal friends were good to go, we went up to the cashier and handed over our bags of ni-nights as payment. (Momma also handed over her debit card on the sly). I was so impressed with the cashier, she was SO encouraging of the kids and kept saying how they were such Big Kids now, and how they were going to love their new puppy/kitty.
All in all, it was a very smooth transition. Of course that very night Abbey came down with 103 fever and was throwing up.
Not. Awesome.
But we survived and the kids have only asked about their ni-nights a handful of times, and we just remind them that they have new lovies now. Easy peasy.
(Although, during a fit the other evening, Ab's did ask for her ni-night and when I reminded her we didn't have them anymore, she sobbed "but can we please go back to that store and see if that lady is done with them yet?!?" But really, that was more just part of her fit than truly a ni-night missing, in my opinion)
Luke has named his doggy Dory, and Abbey has named her kitty Gnocchi-Gnocchi-Abbey-Kitty. (Gnocchi is the name of the kitty in Curious George)
They are both well loved and well cared for, in fact, I found Gnocchi-Gnocchi-Abbey-Kitty lovingly tucked into Momma and Daddy's bed the other day for a nap =).
Big Kids indeed.
3 comments:
Awww, so sweet :)
Yea, Abbey and Luke!!!
(Erin calls her lovey-blanket Ni-nights, too!)
They're going to be graduating from high school before you know it! Where is time going?!
Love, Aunt Carol
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