Operation Bye-Bye Binky Commences - Day One

I can honestly say that I do not know how many binkies Gracie and Lukie have had in their short lives. We had a huge stash just in case we lost some. Remember the binky drawer?

Daddy and I decided recently that the time to say goodbye to the binkies had come. We've been planning and planning, but never really got around to ending the binky usage. Last weekend, we agreed that Friday, January 15th was as good a day as any.

Tonight, while Gracie and Luke were eating chicken nuggets, french fries, dip, and chocolate milk, I went into the kitchen and snipped off the ends of all of the binkies and placed them back inside the cupboard. I think I got all of the known binkies in our house. I can never be sure, though. Every time I think we have all of the binkies, one turns up under a bed or in a toy box. We will have to keep our eyes open for rogue binkies.

After bath time, we went through our usual routine of diapers, jammies and binkies. I set one altered binky out for each of the Twinsies and waited for them to ask for one. A few minutes later, I heard:

"My binky. I want my binky," from Luke.
"Here you go, buddy," I replied and handed it to him. I glanced over at Daddy to see his expression and we just raised our eyebrows at each other.
"My binky. I want my binky too," came from Gracie.

They each sucked on their binkies a few times, but Luke was the first to realize that something was amiss.

"Look-it!" he said. "Look-it!" He held his binky out and looked at it.
"What is it, buddy?" Daddy asked.
"Look-it, my binky!"
"Oh, no!" I said, "Your binky is broken! Oh, no!"
Gracie joined in. "Look-it! Look at my binky!"
"Is it broken, too?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, no. If it is broken, we need to throw it away."
"Throw it away?"
"Yep, we need to throw it away." I walked them over to the trash can. "Do you want to throw them away here?"
"Okay, I throw it away." And they did just that. In the next second, they asked for another one.

We went through all of the binkies in the cupboard. Gracie and Luke tested every binky we had, declaring each and every one "broken." Every "broken" binky was tossed in the trash until there were none left.

"All gone. Okay, let's go read some books," I told them.

We read Where the Wild Things Are in Spanish and a Winnie the Pooh book. Occasionally, Lukie or Gracie would say "It's broken, Mommy. My binky is broken." I would tell them they were right and that was why they put them in the trash.

When it was time to turn off the light, we had a moment when Luke refused to go to get into bed without his binky. I reminded him that they were in the trash and he told me he wanted to see them. Gracie and Lukie and I walked back to the kitchen and they opened the trash can to look at their binkies. There was another chorus of "broken" and we went back to the bedroom.

We tucked them in and Daddy settled in to sing the "Elephant Song." Forty minutes later, he came out, telling me that they were both asleep. So far, it has been an hour and a half and no sounds.

The true test will be how tomorrow and tomorrow night go.

Wish us luck!