All Gone!!!! Finally!!!!

Addie is finally done with the binkie! It needed to happen a long time ago but I think I was procrastinating it as much for me as I was for her. I finally decided we just needed to go for it but since she was older, I wanted her to feel like it was her decision.

Here's how we did it...
A few weeks ago, I had her throw away all but three of them. She got to pick which three she wanted to keep and she had no problem throwing the rest away knowing she still had three others.

One day, I took her to the gas station and let her pick out three packs of gum (she loves gum but hates that I only let her have a half of a piece. She always tells me that she's big to have a big piece!) She was thrilled to have three packs of gum that were all hers. In order for her to open the pack of gum, she had to throw away a binkie.

As soon as we got home that day, the first binkie went straight to the garbage. She enjoyed her pink Trident bubble gum and getting to chew whole pieces. Sometime during the next few days, we lost her second binkie somewhere (still haven't found it)! So, we were down to just one.

I decided since we couldn't find the other binkie, that she could have her 2nd pack of gum with the knowledge that if we did ever find it, it was going straight to the garbage. She decided she wanted the other pack of gum and since I knew she really wanted it, I told her she couldn't have it till she threw away her last binkie (I didn't think she'd actually do it right then)!

She immediately went upstairs, brought it down and threw it away despite my attempts to make sure she really knew what she was doing. She gave it one last suck then spit it into the garbage can and was thrilled to get her gum.

I was pretty nervous about how she'd do. We were gone for awhile that day and got home at naptime. She was already tired and so got really upset when she wanted her binkie and I told her it was all gone. She actually looked scared. It was pretty sad.

Luckily, she did fall asleep quickly and took a nap. Bedtime that night went great as well. She's asked for it a few times and there have been a few tears for them but she's doing amazingly well. I'm so proud of her! Way to go Addie!