bye bye binky and other shenanigans

I have been fearing the passing of Minnie's blessed binky for more than a year. The girl loved loved loved her binky.
Put that thing in and she was like puddy in your hands...usually anyway.
It made naptime and bedtime such a breeze and I was a wreck thinking about all the terrible nights of sleep and non-nap days that loomed ahead of us.
As soon as she hit two, I knew we had to just bite the bullet.
Well, I avoided that bullet as long as possible and it finally took gutsy Mr. Collard to make it happen.
Minnie only had her binky during naptime and bedtime and we started telling her about a week prior to taking it that binky was going to have to go "bye bye" soon.
She would repeat us, "Binky go bye bye" and then snatch it from our hands and pop it in her mouth.
I didn't see this going very well.

The night Robert finally bit the bullet (I put it all in his hands...I'm such a sissy) he had Minnie take her binky into our room and place it in a bag.
We explained that now binky had gone bye bye.
Once she realized she would not be getting it back she started to cry.
"Binky, binky, binky!" she said over and over...for about one minute.
We then distracted her with a bedtime story and with that, the crying was done.
When Robert laid her in her bed she stated matter of factly, "Binky go bye bye."
No crying, no nothing.
The girl knew the deed was done and she was amazing!
I was seriously blown away.

In some ways I think preparing her to say goodbye to the binky really helped.
Having her put the binky in the bag herself gave her ownership of the whole situation as well.
Naptime was a bit of a struggle for a day or two, but since then she's done so well.
For about a week she would once again state, "Binky went bye bye" when we laid her down for a nap or bedtime, but for the last few weeks she's hardly mentioned it at all and slept like a champ.
It's funny how nervous I get about changing things in Minnie's life, when really, she always does just great.

Next step...potty training.
These are the parts of motherhood I have always dreaded.

Other shenanigans of note:

• Minnie has now crawled out of her pack n' play three times with traumatic results. I think she's finally giving it up considering the last time she got a huge scratch down her back from the TV stand. I know she's getting way too big for the pack n' play, but with our current living situation I'm not sure where we'd put a toddler bed. There isn't a room in this house I'm not afraid to leave her alone in.
• Much to my dismay Minnie now knows how to twist doorknobs and she opens and slams doors incessantly. Baby proofing may need to be in the works.
• When Minnie opens and closes said doors, she will often look at me and say, "Be right back," and then close the door. The girl picks up on things like you wouldn't believe. I didn't even know she knew that, or that I said it enough for her to pick up on it.
• Speaking of picking up on things, Minnie now says "Oh my gosh!" and "No way!" all of the time. I try to ignore it when she does it, because all I want to do is laugh, but she sounds so much like a little teenager and I would just prefer she not speak like a teenager until she's actually a teenager...and not even then! She also said s-t-u-p-i-d the other day and I wanted to cry. We are really going to have to watch our mouths around this house.
• When Minnie counts to 20 she always skips from 13 to 17. And today, she even added an "eleventeen." I think we need to add eleventeen to our numbering system. It has a nice ring to it.
• Louisa is a dream sleeper. Minnie has always been an incredible sleeper and I just figured I wouldn't be lucky enough to have two in a row. Dreams come true, I guess. She will sleep for at least five to six hours at night, wake up to feed, eat for about 30 or 40 minutes, and then I can swaddle her and lay her in her bed awake and she'll put herself back to sleep.
• Lou Lou also spits up and blows out about 75% less than Minnie did. Minnie was a ticking time bomb and her spit up was almost projectile. I hated it and I'm so grateful we bypassed that with Lou...at least so far.
• Nursing has been so much easier this time around than last. Praise the heavens above!!!
• Potty training has now officially commenced with the Minster. Since starting this morning at 10 she has gone #1 twice in the kitchen (thank heavens it wasn't on the carpet), once in the big potty and once in her froggy potty. I have been letting her run around in her birthday suit because I don't think she even realizes she's going. With the diaper off she can feel it and see it. Right before she went down for her nap she told me that she needed to go and we didn't even have a tiny accident. She just sat down and went. I was so impressed! I'm praying she gets the hang of it fast, but so far, so good.