Adios papi

Tuesday marked a milestone in BEB's life. A few months back, we prepped her and told her that once she turned 2 years old, papi (her beloved pacifier that she only gets at bedtime) would be going bye-bye. We've shared how the Papi Fairy would be coming to take her papi(s) and give them to all the kids who don't have one. We explained that she would be helping other kids and that it's all part of sharing what we have with others.

Her birthday came and went and with the ear surgery still ahead, we decided to give her a little more time. We wanted to make it disappear Monday night but didn't feel like it would be fair to leave that task to our babysitter while we were at a meeting.

So, Tuesday night, we endeavored what we thought might be the impossible. CNB explained the whole process to BEB and my task was to be the gopher and encourager. CNB had me get her Tinkerbell wrapping paper, an empty gold box, a blank card, her baby Karen's papi and her beloved pacifiers. He picked her up, set her on the counter, and proceeded to tell her that it was time to wrap up her papies and give them to the kids. She put one in the box and one in her mouth. It stayed there until the last second before the gift would be wrapped – never to be seen again! We wrote a card to the Papi Fairy and encouraged Brit to color a picture for the kids. She thought it would be nice to give them some of her crayons and a pack of fruit snacks, too. So the gold box contained 2 papies, her baby Karen's papi, 5 crayons and the card. The fruit snacks made it to her mouth before making it in the box! CNB wrapped it up in Tinkerbell paper and we took a family walk to the mailbox, with Mimi, Papa & Scout in tow. BEB has learned which box is ours in the long row of mailboxes and went straight to it and opened it up. We said a little prayer and tucked the box in and told her that we'd come back tomorrow to pick up a note and prize from the Papi Fairy (Chris is shopping for the prize & I'm in charge of the card!).

She did amazingly well with the whole getting rid of process. It went almost too well. We thought we could be in for a long night as it's not unusual for her to wake up in the middle of the night calling out for papi. During our bedtime prayers, she made a shout out to papi twice but that was it. We bundled her up in her 'blank' and tucked her in with her favorite bedtime animal 'Lambey'. From the beginning, Lambey and papi have been inseparable – when she has one, she's always had the other. It was time to cut the ties between them and show her that Lambey can survive on his own! She whimpered a few times during the night but never once screamed out for her device.

Wednesday: After work, CNB secretly 'planted' the Tinkerbell wrapped package from Lily the Papi Fairy in our mailbox. We got out the video camera and took BEB for a stroll down to check the mail. Retrieved the package, came back in, tried reading the card from Lily (she wouldn't let me finish!) and watched her slowly tear the Tinkerbell wrapping paper. Inside she found a beautiful, blue barbie-like-doll Fairy (we named) Lily.

She's had fun playing with Lily the last few days and when she mentions papi now she quickly follows it up by saying 'kids' indicating she's well aware of where her beloved papi has gone.

You better believe we thought about a back-up plan! We kept one papi on-hand – just in case!

For those parents out there - if your kid needs to let go of something, you might want to try our technique. It's a little like telling them about the Tooth Fairy - they give up something to get a little treat. Successful so far - but we're only on day 3!