It's true. My baby girl is growing up. Up until Saturday night she still went to bed with her beloved sucky. Her sucky of course being her pacifier or binky or soo soo or sookie or didgie or whatever you call it in your family. Abby was always been a big sucky advocate never wanting to be too far from one. We actually had a stash of about 4 of them tucked away in a drawer. That kept her from having any one favourite and we could safely misplace one or two before resorting to panic. We tried, some days sucessfully, to limit her sucky time to when she was in bed.
Once she turned three Mike became concerned with the fact that she still relied on her sucky. He felt it was time we retired good old sucky. Abby, as I'm sure you can imagine, strongly disagreed. As for me, well it wasn't that I really disagreed with Mike, I just thought that we needed to pick the time for this carefully to ensure success. On the days she goes to the sitter's she gets up at about 6 am and I didn't really think it was fair to take away her sucky and then expect her to keep her normal schedule. I knew there would be a period of adjustment and knowing Abby and other adjustments we'd made, well let's just say she'd be pretty vocal with her displeasure. Plus she was going through other changes, like toilet training, and I didn't want to pile too much on her at once.
So we've got the toilet training down. We've even solved the bet wetting problem. In our house while our bedrooms are upstairs our bathroom is not and Abby was having a hard time making it all the way down to the toilet. So in a flash of genius Michael suggested putting her potty in her room with her. So far it's worked out great. Most nights she doesn't even wake us up, just goes herself and gets back into bed. She's been telling everybody that she has her own bathroom in her bedroom. So with that taken care of it was time to revisit the sucky issue.
Mike thought now would be a good time since he's off work and she wouldn't have to get up in the morning if she had a rough night. I admit I was a bit resistent to this idea because I knew I'd be the one dealing with one very irate child until she finally gave in and went to sleep. Not that I mind, but out of the three of us there's only me that has to get up and go to work the next day. Normally I wouldn't care much about that either, but with this pregnancy and Mike needed extra attention and Abby needing all the attention that a young child does, well I'm feeling stretched a little thin. So I convinced Mike to leave it a little longer.
Along come Saturday night. It was bedtime for Abby, but just before she went to bed she wanted to show Mike her latest gymnastics moves. So the three of us headed upstairs to our bedroom so she could do her "routine" on our bed. She's become quite an accomplished little gymnist. She went through her seat drops and safety stops for a few minutes and then stated she was going to bed. I had brought up her cold water with me. Yes folks, it must be cold water. Not just cold from the fridge, but cold with an ice cube. Be prepared to head downstairs in the middle of the night for fresh ice cubes if she happens to wake up and want a drink. She will rarely settle for room temperature and a trip down to the freezer ensures I'll be back in bed relatively quickly. So while I had the cold water, none of us had sucky. So we say her prayers and I tuck her in bed having decided not to bring the missing sucky to her attention. I was fully prepared to have to head back upstairs with it once she realized it was AWOL.
So I sat, like the Grinch on Christmas morning, with my ear cocked toward the stairs and waited for the wails of disappointment. Imagine my surprise when I heard nothing. Not a peep. Not a squawk. Not a cry. Well that was way easier than what I was expecting. I figured it had to be a fluke, there was no way it would happen two nights in a row. So Sunday night rolls around and Abby and I head up to bed. After she's said her prayers she looks at me and says "Oh no I forgot sucky." Since she's already proven she can manage without it just fine I try and get her to agree that she doesn't need it.
Me: I don't know where sucky is.
Abby: Maybe it's in the drawer.
Me: No it's not in the drawer.
Abby: Maybe Daddy knows where it is.
Me: No Daddy doesn't know where it is.
My trusting daughter takes me at my word. Never suggesting that she'll check the drawer or question her Daddy herself. So make up a little story about how I think her sucky has gone to another little girl's house. A baby girl because babies need suckies, not big girls who are going to be big sisters like her. Well if there's one thing Abby does remarkably well it's pout. And this situation, in her mind, certainly warrranted one. She pulled out all the stops with this one. She stomped her foot, crossed her arms, tossed her head, turned away from me and stuck out her bottom lip. Then she told me, "I don't want to be a big girl, I want to be a baby!"
Mentally I scrambled for a moment trying to come up with a new approach. I couldn't tell you what Abby was thinking at that time, but in mere seconds the pout was gone and she turned to me with a big smile, "the baby can sleep in my bed Mommy."
Me: Okay, where will you sleep?
Abby: Right here, see.
She climbed into her bed and squished herself against the wall showing me there was enough room beside her for the baby. She went on to explain to me that after my tummy was feeling better we'd bring the baby home in the van. She would sit in the back with Auntie Yoli. When I asked her where the baby would sit, she patiently explained to me that the baby wasn't here yet. I took that to mean it was a problem that could wait. After that I tucked her in, said good night and once again she went quietly off to sleep. I wondered how many nights in a row I was going to have to convince her she didn't need sucky. Oddly enough the next morning she woke up and the very first thing she says to Mike is: "My Mommy said my sucky went to another girl's house and I don't need it anymore because I'm a big girl!" Wow! I didn't think I had any chance of her actually buying that story. Just to keep reinforcing the idea I've been having her repeat the story to all her grandparents. As an added bonus Abby's letting them know that they can't be giving her a sucky just in case she tries to con them at a later date. Another skill she's been working on, just tonight she claimed Daddy made the mess in her toy room and she would get him to clean it up. You know I always had a sneaking suspicion that Mike liked to play with Barbies and My Little Pony.
No comments:
Post a Comment