A Birthday, A Binky, and Some Balloons

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Amy

Today is Rory’s 4th birthday. We have been preparing for this birthday ever since his 3rd birthday. Last year, I wanted Rory to rid our house of all binkies. Rory’s craziness outlasted my love of sleep and he was granted access to Binky for sleeping only. That lasted about a week before Binky was once again a permanent fixture in Rory’s mouth. He never took it out of the house – he was a closeted binky-sucker.

About a month ago I really started driving it home to Rory that his Binky was not going to be around once he turned 4. He was once again seemingly excited to rid himself of his Binky, but I had my doubts. I also knew that if we didn’t really get rid of Binky, I would give in and let him have it as soon as the going got a little tough. We decided that tying Binky to the end of a bunch of balloons and letting it fly away was the proper way to expose of his plastic oral fixation.

Rory and all of his ladies.

Kamryn really wanted to be the one to let the balloons go because she is a control freak like her mom, but I insisted that Rory be the one to do it. He needed closure. So after we all counted to three, he released the balloons and up,

up,

up, and up it went. There was not much wind and Binky appeared to be going straight up in the air. I had already said that if that damn binky ended up back at our house or if the balloons all popped and it fell right at Rory’s feet, we would be taking it home and he would be allowed to have it as long as he wanted. Of course it did not and Binky is now somewhere east of San Diego. In hindsight, I wish I would have attached a note for the whoever found it to email me so I knew how far it had gotten, but I may had been too tempted to go pick it up if I knew. Not knowing is best.

After about 5 minutes, Binky was no longer visible to the naked eye so the kids flew kites, drove remote control cars and we looked on as our children gazed out over our beautiful city on a gorgeous day, on a little boy’s birthday.

Happy birthday, to my wonderfully crazy, silly, naughty, hilarious, adorable, and best little boy!!

Bad Binky!

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Amy

Rory has used a pacifier since he was a baby. He got his first taste of a binky when he was in the NICU – not even a full 24 hours old. Kamryn also used a binky and gave it up completely on her own when she was about 7 months old. She switched over to sucking her thumb and I tried to get her to go back to the binky for about a week without success. This is no doubt why I haven’t tried very hard to get Rory to give up his binky. I hated it when Kamryn sucked her thumb.

On Rory’s 3rd birthday we tried to get rid of his binky, but we discovered that Binky was actually like giving Rory a dose of Ambien and taking it away was like shooting him full of Red Bull. Another reason I haven’t been forcing him to give it up.

Every day we have multiple instances where Rory is searching for his binky. We used to have 3 binkies, but we are now down to 1 and I’ll be damned if I go buy anymore. He’ll ask me where his binky is, I’ll respond that I don’t know and then he’ll say, “You just find it.” Then he follows me around until I find it asking, “You find my binky?” Like he wouldn’t be the first I would notify should I find the object of his oral fixation.

This particular binky has been around since Rory was 6 months old. I’m sure they only have about a 2 month lifespan, but 3 years later, it’s still doing it’s job. I do examine it every once and awhile to make sure it’s not falling apart, but it’s holding up quite well. I tried to get him to graduate to an 18 mos+ age binky, but he wouldn’t take it and dubbed it his “yucky binky”.

I don’t allow Rory to take his binky out of the house unless we are going on a trip. We kept track of Binky fairly well on our trip last week and only had one instance where I thought we had lost it. We had just boarded the last leg of our flight home and the minute we started to taxi down the runway, Rory was asking for his binky. I told him he had to wait until the pilot said it was OK to get it out of his bag. It was 10:00pm, we were all exhausted and Rory just wanted to fall asleep.

As we began to lift into the air, I was trying to remember where I put Binky. I know Rory had it in the Denver airport, but I didn’t remember picking it up when we got in line to board the plane. Instant panic struck. If I didn’t have his binky he was going to be crying the entire way home – not to mention he would be incredibly difficult to get to bed once we did get home.

I was actually starting to sweat a little bit and against Sky Law, I took off my seat belt and started rummaging through all of our carry on luggage. It wasn’t in Rory’s bag or Kamryn’s and I was sure it wasn’t in mine because how could I not remember putting it in there less than 20 minutes prior? Never underestimate the mind sucking powers of air travel followed by a full day at a state fair, for there, in the side pocket of my bag was Binky.

I threw Binky over to Rory and decided that we needed to get rid of that thing once and for all. I can’t be having panic attacks at 30,000 feet over that stupid thing.

Today, Rory once again was searching for Binky and asked me to find it. I told him I wasn’t going to find it and if he wanted to have a binky, he had to have Yucky Binky. He agreed and I pulled Yucky Binky out of a drawer and tossed it over to him. Now I had to hunt down the real deal and hide it. I found it on the counter in the bathroom and threw it in the drawer. I was going to throw it in the garbage, but I couldn’t. My little buddy has been sucking on that thing since he was an infant. Before he could crawl, walk, or say really funny, inappropriate things.

As it turns out, I’m a little attached to Binky too. However, I don’t need to see it in his gob. I’m perfectly happy with it tucked away in a drawer. Rory gave Yucky Binky a go and he ended up passing out on my bed for 4 hours.When he woke up, he said his teeth hurt. Perfect. My master plan is working. Even if he doesn’t get rid of Yucky Binky for awhile, at least it’s pushing out his teeth a little bit and I’m hoping that after a full night of Yucky Binky, he is going to actually dislike Yucky Binky and give it up completely.

My Kryptonite

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Amy

I’m coming off of a blog post where I claim to have killed the Easter Bunny in my dream and did it without feeling any emotion. I am not heartless, I’m actually kind of an emotional mess at times. For example, I was crying during Mike’s funeral on Desperate Housewives. I don’t even like the show anymore, but I keep telling Ryan I have to finish out the series since I have watched it from the beginning.

I won’t watch a St. Jude’s commercial or an ASPCA one for that matter. When someone posts a video on Facebook with the status of “Get your box of tissues…” I don’t watch it. And don’t even get me started on the military mother or father that surprises their child at school. I don’t watch them because it leaves me with red, swollen eyes. Snot running out of my nose (because I don’t actually get the tissues before the video). And that hiccuping speech where…you…can’t…get…a…full…sen..tence…out.

I know I’m not alone when it comes to my reaction to the above. OK, maybe not everyone was crying during Desperate Housewives, but only because no one watches that show anymore.

What got me all choked up today was this face.Not exactly that face he’s making, but Rory’s cute little face. On his 3rd birthday we tried to get rid of his binky. I gave in after an hour because he would not got to sleep. I haven’t tried to get rid of it since, but was adamant that the binky would only be used at night. Soon that too was being ignored and Rory was back to having a binky a lot during the day. Pretty much anytime he asked for it, I gave it to him. Yesterday I decided that was going to stop.

I took his binky away in the morning and put them on top of the refrigerator since it’s the only place that he is completely incapable of reaching. He wasn’t happy, but we made it through the day with some extra snuggling and at bedtime, he was asleep before I got through the first page of our bedtime story, with his binky, of course.

This morning, I went through the same routine and tried to get Rory overly excited about not having his binky. He’s no dummy – he wasn’t buying what I was oh so desperately trying to sell him. I got him to sit on the couch with a snack so I could take a quick shower and when I got out, Rory was standing there with the longest face I had ever seen. All he said was “I miss binky.” He said it so softly that you could actually hear my heart breaking. NO! I will not give in that easily. I told him that once I got ready I would snuggle with him. He wasn’t really patient with me and kept coming back to the bathroom to ask me if he could have binky. Each time I told him “No, just give me a few more minutes and then we’ll snuggle.”

The next thing I heard were his despairing calls of “Binky, where are you?” “Binky? Is that you?” “Binky, I can’t find you!” He was in the living room frantically searching for Binky and his pained face was more than I could take. He was unbelievably sad and I just can’t bear to see my kids like that. I have seen my kids get physically hurt – falling down, bonking their heads, even by other kids, but I know they’ll be OK and I know in a few minutes, the sting of that broken skin will fade for them as well. Seeing my child emotionally hurt, well that’s something else entirely.

I made Rory a deal. He could have his binky as long as he was in his bed. He didn’t have to go to sleep, but that was the only place he could have it. He agreed to my terms, rather enthusiastically, and off he ran to his bed, awaiting his beloved binky. I got a few things done around the house and was just about to pull him out of his bed and take his binky away when he trotted out of his room, threw his binky in my face, shouted “I’m done!” and took off down the hall. Funny how a slimy binky hitting your cheek shakes all the sympathy you had for the small child out of your body.

And now that I have finished my post, I realized that it’s WTF Wednesday, so I have to say to Rory….WTF?

Rory’s Birthday

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Amy

One of my goals as a mom is to allow my children one day a year (their birthday) to do whatever their little hearts desire. To allow them the freedom to make their own decisions without me suggesting they try something else. I always announce this luxury with a bit of trepidation. One of these days they are going to go overboard and I’m going to have to say “No.” to one of their requests. Luckily, that has yet to happen.

The rules for the children’s birthdays are as follows:

You may eat whatever you want. This includes going out to eat. The funny thing about this rule is that kids don’t really think too far outside the box. For example, they still pick a breakfast food for breakfast, a pretty acceptable lunch and dinner. The snacks sometimes go awry, but that’s acceptable for one day. Yesterday, Rory started his day with a waffle. Then had yogurt, s’mores Goldfish, part of a Hershey bar, lunch at Souplantation, more s’mores Goldfish, chicken noodle soup, a peanut butter and honey sandwich, an old candy cane leftover from Christmas, more of the Hershey bar, ham and french fries.
We love our Souplantation!!!
You may dictate all activities for the day. I have decided my children will have a party every 5 years. We’ll probably have a small gathering every year, but if they want to have a big party, they have to wait until 5, 10, 15, etc. This is where I know things may get a little tough once the kids get older. Right now they think they are limited to things they already have done. There were no requests to go to Disneyland or Hawaii (Kamryn’s top two destinations). Rory didn’t really have anything he wanted to do except sleep after his lunch.
You will have your picture taken on a step. I thought the kids would always be sitting on the front step of our house in Iowa, but things change and now they are sitting on the steps outside our condo in California.

Rory's 3 year photo. The funny thing is, all of his clothes are 18-24 months. I love that he's so little. I get to hang on to having a little guy for as long as possible.

That’s pretty much it. Rory’s final request of the day was to have his binky. We have been talking about this for a month. Once he turned 3, the binkies were gone. He tried to convince me that he was still 2 by throwing a sock, a sandwich and a plate at me, but I held firm…for an hour.

Rory is an interesting child. When I first told him he wasn’t allowed to have a binky, he cried and cried. It was a very sad cry that was making me sad. I wanted to give him his binky right then and there, but I didn’t. Once he settled down, we went back to his room, read his book and got him all tucked in. He accepted that he wasn’t going to get his binky which appeared to be a *win* for me, but what I didn’t realize was that Binky is Rory’s Ambien. Without that little piece of plastic, he was wired. He kept running out of his room and jumping into the living room in a fighting stance, yelling “Hiiii-Yaaaa!” Believe me, it was hilarious, but it stopped being funny after an hour. He wouldn’t stay in his room for anything. So at 9:00pm, Binky miraculously reappeared, much to Rory’s delight, and off to bed he went without so much as a peep until this morning at 6:45am when he ran out of his room, Binky in hand, and shouted, “No more Binky!”

Feel free to stop by here and vote for me to win the Skydiving Adventure! I’m very securely in second place, but we could still make a run for first!!