Seeking advice on toddler transitions

Sigh. . .

We're taking Jessica's binkies away this weekend. Richard & I are binkie dependant parents. We pushed a binkie on her, when she would have been fine without. Now she's an addict. Actually, I don't regret pushing the binkie. She's learned to self-soothe and she's only had it for sleeping. Well, until recently. Now she fishes one out of her crib anytime she gets her feelings hurt. I'm completely unwilling to have a two year old and a baby with binkies, so Jessica's binkies have got to go.

Any advice? It's been a few years since we made this transition with Kate and she was easy peasy. We thought about having a binkie party and tying the binkies to helium balloons & watch them go bye-bye. But, that could potentially be traumatic. So, we're going with the same old, cut the nipple, tell her they're broken & tell her to throw them away.

Amber & Kate are on Spring Break from Thursday through Monday. We're anticipating some lost sleep, so the timing seems ideal. We don't have plans to go anywhere anyway.

We toyed with the idea of setting up her big girl bed & letting her choose to sleep in it without binkies, but opted for one transition at a time. Amber will move into the smaller bedroom with the baby & Jessica will move in with Kate. Rich suggested moving Jessica into the big bed in her own room; then once she can go to bed without too much goofing or escaping, move her in with Kate. I don't know what's best. That's just one more transition. Right now we put Amber & Kate to bed at 8:00. Kate needs to be asleep by 8:15ish. Amber is usually awake until 9:30 or 10:00 (I swear, It's a Mills thing). I'm eager to move Amber. I feel like Kate goes to kindergarten tired most days.

I'd love to hear any suggestions on taking away binkies and transitioning from cribs to beds.

April 3rd update

We've made it through three binkie-less days. Jessica is happy and well-rested, although she feels that bedtime and nap time are traumatic. The first night she cried for about half and hour and then fell asleep. She cried off and on between 10:00 & 12:00, then slept soundly the rest of the night. When I got her out of her crib in the morning I found her with a binkie in her mouth. Apparently, she searched her crib more thoroughly than I. (I rounded up 8 binkies!, 9 with her find. No kidding we're binkie dependant parents!). She cries for a shorter period of time each time we put her down & is even sleeping through the night. Whew! Hopefully she'll believe binkies were from her baby days when we give one to her baby brother in July.

Ski trip

The first thing Richard & I ever did together was go backpacking in the Tetons. One point for Richard. We camped, another point. He took me rock climbing, another point. He bought a mountain bike so he could mountain bike with me, another point. We snowshoed, cross country skied, went caving, & down hill skiing, four more points. He started working in the temple, many more points. I found out he had been a ski instructor, another point. I think I could carry on with with this, but it's not really the intent of this post. So furthermore:


Rich took Amber & Kate skiing a few days ago. I envisioned this happy day years before it ever happened. The girls loved it. They couldn't have a more patient ski instructor. Me, my pregnant belly, & tired toddler opted to stay home. But the day will come that we'll all ski together. Actually, I told Rich he can teach Amber & Kate to ski & then I'll take them skiing while he stays home with the two little ones. Hee hee.

We Need Each Other

"We are all in this together. We need each other. Oh, how we need each other. Those of us who are old need you who are young, and hopefully, you who are young need some of us who are old. . .We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other. These friendships are a necessary source of sustenance. We need to renew our faith every day. We need to lock arms and help build the kingdom so that it will roll forth and fill all the whole earth."
-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I wanted to share this little video clip beause it made a strong impression on me. Throughout my life I've often felt like the one who didn't fit in the group, regardless of what the group was. This video is a good reminder that we don't have to be homogenous to be valued.

Waiting

The past few months have been crazily emotional for me. I don't know this pregnancy is more challenging because I'm getting older, if boy baby hormones affect me more than girl baby hormones, or if I always get this crazy when I'm pregnant and I just forget. I've told a few people that I've felt like my emotions were broken. Thankfully, I've come out of the fog a little and feel like I've needed a little creativity in my life.

My life feels full of waiting lately. Waiting to get some energy back. Waiting for BYU-Idaho to decide what the requirements are for the new major they're forming, which Richard wants to pursue. Waiting to know what Richard is going to due with his business while he goes to school and when he's going to move from part-time student status to full-time student. Waiting for winter to end because I can't enjoy most of my favorite winter activities when I'm pregnant. Waiting for a real paycheck. And of course, waiting for this baby to come.

I've been following my my cousin Kati's blog & my sister-in-law Elizabeth's blog, both of whom are accomplished quilters. They've given me a quilters bug. I decided I needed to escape my boredom & succumb. Granted, I have to have a low-budget quilter's bug, but I've started some projects I'm excited about. I finished the first, a minkee quilt for Kate today. It was super simple & she's excited about it.

This is Amber's minkee quilt I made for her a couple of years ago.

Now Kate has her very own.
She picked out the fabrics of course.

I was thrilled with the quilting job

(I wish this was my own work. I took it to the quilt shop)

Ta Da a finished project.

Now I'm itching to make one for Jessica & one for the new baby.

Amber & Kate got their hair cut today. Kate got bangs just like Amber. They're convinced they look identical and were trying their best to confuse us on regarding their true identities.

I've been working on our scrapbooks too. I figure I need to get them up to date now or never. I figured out how to get the scrapbook slide show on my blog to work. If you're interested, you can click on the slide show to see it full sized.