My girl's growing up on me

Learning new things by the second.

Saying new words my the minute.

Doing new tricks by the hour.

Fulfilling us by the day.

Growing by the month.

And she's almost two years old.

Along with this big girl status comes some big girl expectations.  We have recently taken on quite a challenge. Saying "bye bye" to binky. Aunt B has been reminding me often how unhealthy it is for her little teefers. But I've honesly been terrified to even begin weaning off her beloved bink. But we finally bit the bullet and started last Sunday afternoon. I decided we would wean slowly instead of rocking her world and just taking it away. I'm telling you, this girl had a super addiction. Notice I said "had." She's made some huge progress this week. She used her binky only for naptime and nighttime (and one day when she was sick and I felt downright mean for taking it away.) When she woke up I'd pop it out of her mouth and say "big girl don't need binkies." She seemed alright with that. She hasn't asked for it or looked for it. But I don't want to disillusion you and make you think that everything has been peachy keen because that is far from the truth. Her binky has obviously been "plugging up" a lot of her whining. I didn't realize how much whining potential she had until we took it away for good today. Oh my. Why did I choose Easter to do this?? I'll never know. I figured that I'd been up all night coughing this whole week so I might as well do it now since sleep hasn't been easy to come by anyways. I'm so happy to say that she took a nap without binky and went to bed without binky tonight. No cries from her. Yet. Fingers crossed.

Despite the extra whining and overall restlessness, things have gone better than I'd expected. In fact she has been talking a lot more and saying more two word phrases since we unplugged her pretty little mouth. It turns out she has a lot to say. One two word phrase in particular had me rolling on the floor. "Meme" is Emmi the puggle's new Hallie-given name. Well "Meme" was in Hallie's way today so she patted her on the back and said "move Meme!!" It should come as no surprise that a lot of her phrases are commands. She's not shy about telling people how it is. I knew this was coming, all of this talking business....but I can't help but be a tad bit sad about it. Before long we will be practicing with a big girl potty.

Tonight was a special moment for the two of us. Probably silly and simple to most but I got a thrill out of cuddling up in our new bed with her. We pulled out her new learning cards and books and got to reading. To my delight she was a big fan of her Dr. Suess shape and color cards. Wahoo! She didn't want to get down when we were done but her head was drooping and she was obviously in denial that sleep was coming after her quickly. I laid her down in her crib without the security of her binky, sang her a lullaby and closed the door....she was out like a light.

I'm thrilled to be mommy to a pretty special gal.