November 10, 2010
At the beginning of November (November 10th, to be exact), I was sitting next to Tanner, watching him pop his binkie in his mouth, and I suddenly had the urge to just rid us of the "bink-a-bink" once and for all.
I came up with a plan on the fly . . . I pulled out some paper and folded it into an envelope and had Tanner help me staple the sides closed. Then, I asked him what animal he wanted me to draw on the envelope. He chose a bunny . . . which quickly turned into the "Binkie Bunny." So, I drew a binkie next to the bunny and told Tanner to hurry and gather up all his binkies and put them in the envelope. He got excited gathering the binkies and loading them into the envelope he had just made.
I then explained to Tanner that the Binkie Bunny was very very tired and needed some help sleeping and that we needed to send Tanner's binkies so the Binkie bunny could get some sleep. Just before we closed the envelope, I had Tanner sing a song into the envelope - he chose the ABC song - and we closed the envelope up very fast to catch the song, so the Binkie Bunny could have a song and some binkies so he could go to sleep.
Tanner helped me "mail" the envelope to the Binkie Bunny, under the impression that the Bunny was going to send him a present as a "thank you" for the binkies.
Tanner went to bed that night . . . without a binkie . . . and without a fuss! I just laid him down and explained how happy the Binkie Bunny was because he had gotten Tanner's Binkie's and his song. Then I told Tanner that he had to hurry up and fall asleep so he could get his present from the Binkie Bunny in the morning.
The next day, when Matt left for work, I had him set Tanner's present outside our front door and ring the doorbell. Tanner was so excited when he heard the doorbell ring and I told him it was the Binkie Bunny leaving him a present. We opened the door and there was a new rolling toolbox sitting outside the door. Inside the toolbox was and envelope from the Binkie Bunny--it had two suckers in it and a note from the Bunny.
Tanner has been Binkie-free for three whole months now and the only time he talks about his binkie is when he mentions the Bunny who gave him a toolbox and a lollipop and who has his "bink-a-bink" to "help him go night-night."
