No More Blah's

Yes that is right. Our house is "blah" free. So what is a blah you ask? Well, ever since Mason was old enough to "talk" he has called his pacifier his "blah". Not sure where he got that from or why that was the name he chose to give his paci but that is what it was. He, well if I am being truthful, "we" have been hooked on the blah since he was about 6 months old. He had several(6 to be exact) in his crib at one time in case one fell out. That's how bad it was. Well, after several weeks of agonizing over it (me, not Mason)we decided it was time for the blah to go. On Friday, January 13 we took the blahs to his old day care and gave them to the babies! He was so proud of himself walking in to Kiddie Kare to give his blahs to the babies. Everything was great until it was time to actually give them to the babies. I took them out of my pocket and handed them to him and he said, "NO" those are my blahs. He started to cry and I had to pry them from his hands. We gave the blahs to Mrs. Margie and told her to give them to babies and we left. Mason cried for about 10 minutes on the way to preschool and that was it. His day went pretty well at preschool since he was used to not having them at school anyway so no big deal. The true test would come when it was time to go to bed. Everything was good until we sat in the rocking chair to read books and sing songs before bed. He cried for them, asking over and over for his blah's. After our normal routine of reading several books, singing several songs and drinking a milk cup, we put him down for the night. He cried, he screamed, he begged, I want my blah. I need my blah. Please mommy. It broke my heart. After 30 minutes or so he finally cried himself to sleep and slept all night. While the crying and begging part was difficult, I was very impressed with his night. I was certain that he would wake up every hour and cry for it but thankfully he did not. The next night he didn't cry at all. He was so tired from being at my sister's all day and did not have a nap so he was out within 5 minutes of going to bed. The third night he asked for it a few times and cried for about 10 minutes but then went to sleep with not problem. Wow, that was much easier than I thought. I was quite impressed at how well he did with it.
Now fast forward a few more nights and things changed....he wasn't crying any longer for his blah but he needed and wanted everything else. He procrastinated every way he could come up with. He needed one more hug, one more song, one more kiss, one more stuffed animal, one more blanket, no blankets, more milk, pillow, on and on and on. I played along with this one more of this and that and then said enough was enough. He screamed and screamed trying his best to get out of his crib (yes he is still in his crib and I am ok with that)! These little episodes lasted 45 minutes for several nights. Our night time, go to bed routine has always been my special one on one time with Mason but these gut wrenching screaming routines were grating on my nerves and I found myself dreading night time with him. Thank GOD that little stage only lasted 2 weeks and my little snuggly sweet little bedtime buddy returned and our night times are back to being easy breezy bed times once again. In the next couple of weeks, we will tackle the next stage of growing up to be a big boy and will be making the move to the big boy bed.

Until then......