Last night my daughter woke up upset. Bad dream? New teeth? I don’t know. What I do know is that around 4 AM this morning I poked Mr. Cupcake until he got up to settle her… and suddenly (as happens all to often in our household) our bed had three.
“Suckie?” Asked my little cupcake. (Her word for soother)
“No Suckie tonight baby.” I replied. Hoping that maybe tonight she would fall asleep without it and we could finally get rid of the thing!
She considered this for a moment before asking, “Lion?” Her lion teddy bear being almost as important as her suckie.
“Yes baby, you can have Lion.” I gave her the bear and we tried to settle down for the night. Mr. Cupcake already snoring beside us.
This is where we had some difficulty. Baby Cupcake rolled… and she tossed… and turned upside down! She tried backwards, sideways and even stuck her feet in my face! (While Mr. Cupcake slept comfortably.) This went on for about an hour. Finally, just as I was beginning to doze, a frustrated Baby Cupcake sat bolt upright. She had clearly gotten an idea.
For as I lay there, happily dozing off to sleep, I felt a little body begin to climb over me (feet in my face, as usual) and then ever so carefully lower herself to the floor. Before I even had time to scoop her back up again she had me by the arm and began to pull me out of bed. (I have now learned that a determined toddler has a very strong tug.)
Baby Cupcake pulled me until I got out of bed! Then she tugged me down the hall at which point she marched me right out into the kitchen where, in total darkness, she parked me directly in front of the cupboard where we keep her dishes… “What does she want?” I thought.
But, before I could say a word, Baby Cupcake had begun to point at the cupboard. Then, very assertively for an 18 month old, she declared to me her intentions. “Suckie!” Was all she said.
Half astonished and half dozed I opened the cupboard and obliged. Baby Cupcake took her suckie, promptly placed it in her mouth and marched right back to bed without me.
Getting rid of the ”Suckie” is going to be harder than I thought…
Ahh, that is fantastic, well I guess not for you, but I thought it was hilarious. A must read to my class about creative writing and blogging. So fantastic. Now, what about some news about Peanut?! Give my love to Baby Cupcake!
My 3.5 year old was totally addicted to her “binky” and I was so afraid we’d be sending her to college with it.
My husband stopped giving it to her during the day, and wouldn’t allow her to have it until bedtime at night. Eventually she forgot about it.
Here’s to hoping it’s ends up being as simple as that for you, whatever method you try.
What might work is if you go somewhere where there is a clown or something and that person must be given the “suckie” so that she can see it is not at home anymore. I know that worked for my baby brother many, many years ago!! We were in a hospital visiting and one of the nurses asked if she could have it as he didn’t and he gave it to her, asked for it that night and when reminded didn’t ask for it again.
Hey Jenn
What worked for me with Meghan.. She was about the same age no wait actually about 18mos…
Anyway I sat her on my lap. I had the suckie in my hand so she knew what I was talking about. I explained to her what a big girl she was and how good she was and that big girls don’t need to have a suckie anymore and that I wasn’t going to take it away from her but I wanted her to be a big girl and throw it out herself..
I put a new garbage bag in the garbage pail and I took her to it and I asked her if she would throw it in the garbage. Much to my surprise she threw it in there. But thought it over for a second and picked it right back out of the garbage. But in a couple of days she came and grabbed me by the hand and said she was a big girl and took me to the garbage, Threw it in and it was goodbye suckie for good.
Kids are smarter than you think…..
Debbie Mom
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