Withdrawals

It is well known my daughter still used a binky to fall asleep at night. She would sleep all night without it, but we would find it back in her mouth in the morning; who knows when she woke up and grabbed it. All I know is, we have been sleeping really well for four years...UNTIL NOW! Woowza! Talk about binky withdrawals for all of us.

We had been preparing her for months, "when you turn four, the binky fairy comes to take it and she will leave you a present in its place", so she knew it was coming.  She was weepy the first night, but not throwing a fit. I encouraged her, telling her how smart, strong, & determined she is and how proud of her we were.  This seemed to work, but it took a week of whining, about not being able to sleep without it (which she did just fine each time) and four...yes four nights, of little presents from the binky fairy. This girl is smart. She didn't need that binky, she just wanted a gift. She sucked me into her fake whining for four nights, but when the huge fit came for not getting what SHE wanted from the fairy, we pulled the plug on the fairy (don't ever underestimate your toddler's brain power to sucker you in).

She has done fabulous sleeping without it, minus one problem, she now wakes up an hour and a half earlier than she used to (can you hear my sleepiness! I feel like I'm back in that baby stage). People! We have been sleeping in until 8/8:30 for four years! The 6:30am crap doesn't work for me. 6:30am is my calmly waking up time...stretch, glass of water, bathroom to clean up, work out, eat a bowl of cereal, facebook, email, news, start laundry; well, you get the picture, I do things for myself without interruption.  This past week, my 6:30 started out with a bang from her door opening, a grumpy face, pathetic eyes pleading for a binky, a whine about the binky not being there to help her go back to sleep, a smack in the face from a stuffed toy when I tried to roll over to go back to sleep, I'm hungry, I'm tired, I want to go downstairs, GET UP MOM...more pushing on the face, is the binky fairy coming again tonight, because I want (insert some crazy request). Now comes my grumpiness, and don't mess with me if you start me off in a bad mood. Her and I had to stay in separate rooms each morning until we both cooled off. She watched TV, I read the news on my IPad, 1/2 hour later we came together; hugged, kissed, and moved on to the rest of the day...until the bewitching hour of 4:00pm...you get the picture here; sassiness oozing from my toddler having withdrawals from that binky and lack of sleep. It was like her happy drug and the happy drug was gone. She was suddenly an angry, aggressive, whining toddler (NOT Ava at all).

WE HAVE ALL BEEN MISSING THAT BINKY...

Until this morning...she was all smiles and back to herself at a late 7:08am.  :-)  Just like that. Another trying week passes and we all survived unscathed and almost used to the early morning call for motherhood.

AAAAHHHH memories...I thought this one was quit appropriate for this post.  :-)