Saying Goodbye to the Bibi

Kaden has long loved his pacifier, or should I say pacifiers.  I'm not sure how it started, but there was a long spell where he had to have three "bibis" (so dubbed by the Kadester himself) in order to fall asleep at night.  One held in each hand and one in the place of honor in his mouth.  For a while, he even had specific color preferences; we always had to have a blue and a white bibi on hand at all times.  Let me tell you, there was many a panicked bedtime that Chad and I were hunting all over the house for a bibi that was the right color.  He was also very particular about the brand.  He would only take a MAM pacifier from the time he was an infant.

We started talking about him getting rid of his bibi nearly a year ago, but it seemed like there was always some reason to put it off.  We were moving into a new house and didn't want to upset his routine anymore than it already was.  We were traveling and wanted him to be able to have it while we were away.  We were spending the holidays with family and didn't want them to have to deal with a cranky, bibi-less toddler.  I was sick and pregnant and loved that the bibi was a perfect nap time bribe.  We did manage to wean him down to only one bibi and to only using that for sleeping.  He would totally stash them in random places, though, and try sneaking them during the day.  I always knew when he said, "Mommy, I just need to close this door," it meant he was going to go for the bibi.  It was hilarious.

Needless to say, we have been talking about the Bibi Fairy coming to claim the bibis for sad babies who need them for a very long time.  Here's how our first conversation about the Bibi Fairy went:

Me:  Kaden, if you give your bibis to the Bibi Fairy, she will bring you a present!  Wouldn't that be awesome?!

Kaden:  Yes!

Me:  What present do you think you'd want her to bring you?

Kaden:  A blue bibi!!!

We decided he wasn't quite ready . . .

The conversation continued to evolve and around the time he moved into his big boy bed, we started telling him it was going to be time to say goodbye to his bibi for good.

We had an entire week leading up to the big send off to emotionally prepare all of us.

On Monday, we talked about it during family home evening.  Chad made Kaden a sticker chart, where he could put a sticker on every day from Monday until Saturday.  He drew all these pictures on Saturday of what we were going to do for the "Bibi Party," and we talked about how he would wake up on Sunday morning and have a present waiting from the Bibi Fairy herself.  Kaden did most of the explaining, since we'd talked about it so much over the couple of weeks prior.  He kept saying, "I'm a big boy," and "My bibi can hurt my teeth."

We faithfully marked off the days on the sticker chart all week.  Every night we counted how many days were left until the Bibi Fairy got to come.

Then, on Saturday, it was too late to turn back.

After Kaden woke up from his nap, it was game time.

We drove to the dollar store to pick out a balloon to send the bibi on it's way to Bibi Fairy Land.  Kaden chose the Spiderman balloon, only to find out that they had no helium left, so we were stuck with the patriotic ones left in the display. I felt a bit guilty when we realized one balloon wasn't going to lift the thing off the ground.  Nor were two.  Or three.  We totally tied a piece of plastic to five foil balloons, and I'm sure some seagull bit the dust somewhere because we showed so little concern for the environment.  Anyway, we went to the park to say goodbye to the bibi.

I love his expression here.  He's definitely not too sure about this.

A little encouragement from Daddy:

 You want me to do what?

 And they're off . . .

 What have I done?

 And this is why we jeopardized the life of a seagull . . . the higher the balloons went, the more excited he became.  The balloon send off was the perfect way to make him excited about the fact that he no loner had his comfort object.

Then we stayed and played at the park for a bit.

 Before coming home and having celebratory cupcakes, which Kaden had helped decorate earlier.

Kaden did have a hard time falling asleep that night.  We had to sing lots of extra songs and give lots of extra cuddles, but he honestly did so awesome!  He asked for a new bibi a few times and said he needed to go outside to see if the balloons were in our yard.  We just kept reminding him that he was a big boy now and that we didn't have his bibi anymore, because he'd given it to the Bibi Fairy.  By ten o' clock the house was silent and we were all going night-night.

And, in the morning, true to her word, the Bibi Fairy had left Kaden two new trucks to play with.

He wouldn't nap on Sunday, which had me SUPER scared, but he did sleep through the night Sunday.  He did take a nap this afternoon without even asking for his bibi, so I am hopeful we can stick with the same daytime routine.

I am honestly so proud of Kaden for being so brave.  I thought this would be a lot harder of a transition for him.  He never ceases to amaze me.  We love you, Kaden Bug!  Way to be!