Yesterday was sort of momentous in our household. I have been so incredibly nervous about getting Rin to give up the naptime/bedtime binkies. He is extremely attached to them and I was even asking advice of our social worker about how to have it gone by the time he’s 3. So I have been talking up the Binky Fairy a lot and telling him how , when he’s ready, the BF will take his binkies to give to the babies who need them. Every time we hear a baby crying somewhere, I tell him “UhOh, that baby needs a binky!” I have asked a few times if he wants to leave some for The Fairy and he always said “NO! NATNAT’S BINKIES!” and basically grabbed them and ran away. But then, just when I had almost decided I was going to have to force the issue, he surprised me. We were emptying the dishwasher and he noticed that one of his binkies had a hole in it and I asked if he would go put it in the trash for me. He said, “No, I give it to the Binky Fairy for the babies who are sad.” “And I give the babies this one too.” And he handed me another one. I was really taken by surprise and I pointed out that that only left one clean one for bedtime and he said “That’s alright, I have 1 binky” (despite his normal 2 that he gets) and he walked off. And that was that. We left the 2 binkies and a note by the front door and the BF left him 3 lollipops in return (it was all I could find in the house!). For some reason though he kept telling me that it wasn’t the Fairy but the babies who left them, but whatever. He is now down to 1 binky per sleepytime. I am guessing that he will eventually decide he wants some more lollipops and leave the remaining 2 that we have. I’ll give him a few weeks. Truly I couldn’t believe it. He’s such a big boy. And I funny one. The ‘mean face’ that he does (photo above), makes me laugh out loud every single time- especially when he does the tongue thing that makes the sound ‘bluhblehbluhblehbluhbleh’ at the same time (I’ll have to get that one on video for future reference). And his ‘scary bear’ impression is good but the ‘baby bear’ that he does next makes it even better. But sometimes it’s not even intentional- he is just funny because he’s 2. We were driving back from the lake and he was completely entertaining himself in the backseat. Some of the priceless comments he made not to anyone in particular I heard were “I love hay- it tickles your hand,” “Look! I have two elbows!,” “Hawks and vultures are really big birds” and “I love worms, and lightening bugs, and beetle bugs, and caterpillars”. But I have to say that the best part of the lake is seeing him with the rest of the family. I think he’s adorable but to see other people see the same is just so fun. It was a good little getaway and he, as always, loved every ounce of attention that he got. Now back to the real world… Happy 4th! -mOh, and here are photos of the Astana Crew in 2007 and then in Nashville in 2009. What a difference 2 years makes. I hope there are many more of these photos in the coming years. Yay Astana!
