2/13/15

Saying "ByeBye to the BB"


I had been thinking for a while on how I was going to get Little Bear to get rid of his binkies (he always called them BBs).  I kept coming back to one idea so I went ahead with it.  About a week before Christmas, I started talking to him about how Christmas is Jesus' birthday.  And, when it was Little Bear's birthday he got presents from people.  So, then I asked him what he was going to get Jesus for His birthday.  I got all excited and said, "I know, you should give Jesus your BBs for His birthday."  Little Bear replied excitedly, "Yeah!"  I brought it up several more times in the week that followed.  Then, when he got up from his nap on Christmas Eve, I grabbed all his BBs and put them in this box.  I had him help me wrap it up with Christmas wrapping paper.  After supper, we went to church for the Christmas Eve candlelight service.  I had Little Bear put the wrapped up box of BBs under the Christmas tree in the church.  When I checked him into the childcare room, I told the Family pastor what I did.  I even had a tag on the present that said, TO: Jesus   FROM: Little Bear
Little Bear was so proud of his gift it was adorable.  However, when it came time to going to bed that night, he quickly forgot about the excitement of giving Jesus a birthday gift and started wailing for his BBs.  I don't think Little Bear went to sleep till after 10:00 that night.  For the next 4-5 days, naptime and bedtime were rather difficult.  I tried to get him to put a blanket in his mouth and that helped a little.  Several times he said he wanted to go to church and get his BBs back.  I had to tell him repeatedly that you can't take a gift back once you give it to someone.  I was nervous when we went to Church Sunday morning after Christmas that the present might still be under the tree.  Fortunately, when we got there it was gone.  Little Bear did actually look for it.
It's been almost 2 months since he gave up the BBs and he's only mentioned them a couple times in the last month.  I saw him put his sister's BB in his mouth a week ago, but I promptly got him to take it out.  I was also wondering if he would start sucking his thumb, but he hasn't - thank goodness!!!  He has a new bedtime routine since he can't have his BBs though:  a few of his favorite cars and a flashlight.  It's rather cute.  Our Little Bear is growing up and pretty soon will even be giving up his diapers.  But, that's another post.