Bye-bye Binky

We have been telling Gavin for a few weeks now that when he turns 3: no more binkies, no more diapers. So I let him have a binky one last time for bed on his birthday night. The next day I told him he was big and he didn’t need a binky for naps. That just meant he didn’t take a nap. (It’s amazing how that binky can instantly sooth him!) Not too big a deal, the test would be bed time… I had a meeting for Cub Scouts that went late, so Danny put the kids to bed and told Gavin we were done with binkies. That didn’t quite cut it, I guess. Gavin woke up repeatedly, all night long. He cried and cried for long extended times. Poor guy! To part with something so dear cold turkey… It was a rough night for all of us.

So yesterday we had a Bye-bye Binky Party. I got out Gavin’s binky and handed him the scissors. We told him to cut it all up and put it in the garbage. Danny helped, and voila! He knew it was gone, and has slept soundly since! It might even be better than before, because he would still wake up on occasion when he couldn’t find his binky.

And then there’s the “no more diapers” part… We have been working on going potty this week. Unfortunately, Gavin doesn’t really want to. He will go potty if I get him to the bathroom, but he won’t “poop” on the potty. We started taking away a toy for each time he goes #2 in his Pull-up, and he can earn it back if he will do it in the potty. So far, not much luck. We have a collection of toys on top of the fridge. He is good to go #1 half the time in the potty, but he will never tell me that he needs to go when I ask. We just have to take him. I guess there’s nothing instant about potty training, I knew it would take a while! I am just nervous to jump to big-boy underpants because I get so frustrated cleaning up the accidents. (But Lexie still has an accident here and there, it’s just kids, eh?)
So my Gavin is becoming a little man, and soon he will be past all these things. We’ll take each challenge as they come!