NO BINKY?!

Saturday must have been blocked from my brain until last night and it all came rushing back to me. Saturday can be summed up in one word....HELL. It started out okay, we took our time getting ready and out to the house. We had a nice trip to McPherson for Kenley's 2nd birthday party and then it all went down hill from there.

Several factors made the rest of the day..well...hell.
1. Lack of sleep for myself Friday night. (my patience runs thin with little sleep)
2. Madi didn't have a nap Saturday. YIKES!!
3. Cake (frosting) and ice cream (remember my previous post from Chris' birthday?) And not much else to eat that day.
4. Strapped into the car seat for an hour on a car trip that usually takes 35 minutes.
5. And NO BINKY!!!

So, we left the birthday party where Madi was high on sugar...again and headed for the new house. Instead of taking interstate we took the two lane highway which takes us closer to the new house. But it also takes alot longer to get home. Mistake #1.

And remember, Madi hasn't had a nap. She usually takes a 2-3 hour nap, so no nap is a big deal. We gave her her juice hoping she would calm down and sleep on the way home. First of all, her sippy cup has a straw in it and she can't get anything if she tips it. She is use to the regular sippy cups with no straws and because she didn't have a nap, she also has no patience and she wasn't listening to me while I tried to tell her to hold the sippy cup down. So at this point she is ticked off to no end and having a major meltdown. No nap, wrong sippy cup, Mistake 2 &3.

At this point I grab the diaper bag to get our good friend the binky. Digging, digging, no binky. Great, we are still aways from Salina, she has no patience for her sippy cup, tired, and hopped up on sugar, and we have no binky. We decide we will stop in Lindsborg, surely they have a binky somewhere in Lindsborg. At this point Madi has been crying for a half hour. We stop at the grocery store, no binky's. "Try the Dollar General store downtown," they told me. Well, they had binky's but they were for 0+ months. Very, very small. I buy them anyways, she will just have to make due. I take them to the car and give it to Madi. She looks at it and says "Binky" and is very happy. Puts it in her mouth, pulls it back out and says "baby binky" with a somewhat puzzled look. The darn thing is so small, she probably is barely able to hold it in her mouth. So she chews on it the rest of the way home, it satisfies her for the next 20 minutes.

I know, Madi is almost two and there are a lot of things that we need to change with her in the next several months, but I have been holding off until we get settled in the new house. I want the transition to the new house to be as close to normal and familiar for her as it can be. Somewhere along the lines I now have this notion in my head that moving is going to be disruptive to her and to keep things familiar. No other life changing events at this time right now. So, we haven't done a big push to ween the binky, move her into a big girl bed, potty train. All those things that should be coming up real soon or should have already been done. Our lives have all been a little chaotic since October.

So, the reason for this post is, can anyone give me some tips on how to ween Madi off the binky? I have already cut her "binky time" to a bare minimum. She gets it right before nap and right before bed. As soon as she gets up, it gets put up for later. But it is a huge crutch for her and for us, especially these cranky, need something to settle her down, occasions. I am dreading the first night she goes to bed without it. It will probably be a long night.