Binky, where are you?

Ayla's #1 love affair is with her fuzzy, a sheepskin that she has had in her crib from the beginning. Her #2 love is her binkies (otherwise known as nuks, binks, what have you). Big rookie mistake. Those binkies kept her quiet and soothed as an infant, where we so foolishly let her get hooked on the binky habit. In fact, most of the photos we have of her past 6 months old involve a binky somewhere.

We have no plans of ever taking the fuzzy away. If it is durable enough, she might just have it forever. I have no qualms about that. It's the damn binky. I don't know if it's true that they damage growing teeth or if that's a lie dentists tell kids just to be mean. But whatever the reason, Ayla does have to break the habit at some point. I've heard stories from other parents about week-long tantrums and waking up during the night over and over again. I lack the patience and love my sleep too much to put up with that. So what do we do?

Only a few months ago, Ayla started to bite down on the binkies and break them. I like to make that little girl happy, but my limit was met - I was NOT going to buy any more. She still used these torn-up binkies which only made them more gross. We were both teetering on the edge of taking them away, but apparently Gregory hit the edge first.

Many a time we have had to search down a binky in the midst of a tantrum - and the other night, Gregory was in the middle of such scenario. He told Ayla that the binky fairy had taken all of them away and she was never going to see them again. Done and done? Yes, until bedtime. Maybe it's part guilt and part selfish desire for sleep, but we are letting her keep them for nap and bed time until further notice. Ayla asks occasionally and tries to break us down, but she's sticking to the rules. Tonight she said, "If I have my binky out of bed, the binky fairy is going to be very very angry." This is a huge improvement from just a few weeks ago when I just mentioned that the doctor thought she should give up the bink. Her reponse was "I'm going to hit the doctor. With my fuzzy."