By the end of this year I think Sterling will have found 365 ways to give me a heart attack. Look what I found him doing this morning! I walked into the living room to see that he had pulled the rocking horse up to the TV stand, and used it to climb up. There he sat Indian style wiggling to the music and touching the television. I had to get a picture before removing him from his perch. What will this boy think of next?
Today we began operation give up the pacifier. It’s been a nearly two year love affair with the paci, or as Ella and Sterling call it, the pa pa, but I think as we near our second birthday it is time to say adieu to this dear friend. I must confess, I’ve been dreading this day. Mostly because I dread anything that has potential to interfere with our sleep schedule. I’m very lucky and think I have great little sleepers. Down every night by 7:30pm and we don’t usually hear a peep out of them until 8:30am or later. They also nap from 1pm to 4pm (or later if I don’t feel like waking them up). So, the idea of interfering with that beautiful sleep schedule makes me very very nervous. Generally speaking the pacifiers are reserved for the crib or on long car trips, but they have occasionally made an appearance on outings where the kids may become cranky (like China). I am now kicking myself and asking why I didn’t make them give up the paci at 6 months like all the books say to do. I know exactly why I didn’t take them away…we were facing several international flights between then and now…and I wouldn’t have traded the world for those pacifiers during those flights. But now we’re settled for a little while, with no future plans of international travel, so I think it’s now or never and I really prefer my kids not go to preschool next year with a plug in their mouths.
We’re undertaking this operation with full force and commitment. I think. I hope. I tried to take the paci away a couple of weeks ago, and caved after 10 minutes of screaming. My excuse was we were about to take a flight to China and might want those paci’s for the flight and sleeping in the hotel. Okay, so no more excuses. I bought the book “Pacifiers are not forever” for the kids. After their nap today I let them take their paci’s out of the crib. When we got downstairs we read our new book while we happily sucked for the last time on pa pa. After I finished reading the book, we all went to the kitchen where I encouraged the kids to throw away their paci’s. This was met with a little hesitation. Normally the kids are really excited to throw anything and everything away. You name it; we’ve dug it out of the trash! But throwing away the pa pa didn’t sound like a very good idea to them. After a little gentle coaxing, they hesitantly dropped their pa pa’s in the trash. All was well until I quickly changed the trash bag out. That’s when faces fell, bottom lips came out, and eyes started to fill with tears. Dropping the paci in the trashy wasn’t too threatening when they thought they could return later to retrieve it. Once they saw the trash going out the door things got a little more serious. I quickly reminded them that they were big girls and boys now and didn’t need that old pa pa anymore.
We went about the rest of our day and everything was fine. Nothing had changed. Our first night with out pa pa’s was a different story. Let’s just say that our first bedtime sans the paci wasn’t a raging success. Actually, it was pretty far from it. Everything started out smoothly. They marched upstairs and off to bed just like usual. They read their bedtime stories, snuggled with Mommy and climbed into their cribs just as happily as ever. I walked out, and everything continued smoothly for about 15 minutes. I waited in anticipation for the coming storm. For 15 minutes they played happily laughing and singing. Then I suppose they were ready to settle down and go to sleep. That’s when they realized something was amiss. And that’s when it happened. The levy broke and the storm waters came rushing in. Yes, it was bad. There was screaming. There were tears. I'm pretty sure at one point I heard Ella scream something about growing up to be an anorexic and selling her body for drugs and how it would be all my fault. It was a test of wills, and I was determined not to loose. If they meet all challenges in life with such grit and determination, they’ll go far. By 9:30pm Ella was out. One down, one to go. Sometimes two just isn’t so fun. By 10 o’clock Sterling was still going strong. At this point Michael was begging for me to give the child a paci. By 10:15pm he had started to gag himself he was crying so hard. There’s no competition there. I simply couldn’t handle him gagging himself, so I caved. I gave him the pa pa and by 10:30pm he was out. All was silent in our house…finally.
Then 1am rolled around. The phone rings. Great. It’s the insurance company calling about the boat. Of course, they don’t know they’re calling us in the middle of the night or that I have two children whose sleep is very precarious right now. How could they know? Regardless, I’m shooting daggers into the phone and wishing many sleepless nights upon the innocent caller. Then Sterling wakes up…screaming. I had taken the paci out of his crib after he fell asleep. He’s now up and the fight continues. He screamed on and off until 2:30am when the house finally grew silent again. Thank God Ella has always slept through his crying. Thankfully, they didn’t wake up again until I woke them up at 8:30 the next morning. So, count that as the worst night of our parenting lives. Please oh please let this get easier. If it doesn’t get easier, my children will be taking their pa pa’s to kindergarten.
No comments:
Post a Comment