Welcome to Risky Baby Business here at More Cowbell. We talk about moms and babies every Saturday over here, particularly those of the high-risk variety. If you want to catch up on the previous posts in this series, click here.
Often, the topics are quite serious. For example, next Saturday I’ll be discussing cord blood banking – what is it, how do you do it, and what are the pros and cons?
Today, we’re just going to laugh and have fun.
I’m throwing an Elmo Fiesta today at Chez Hansen!
There will be a bounce house for the kids and lots and lots of Elmo. Plus, some margaritas for the parents since it is Cinco de Mayo after all…
What is the best part? Besides my daughter’s smile? This birthday week for Baby Girl is the final step before pre-school!!! Once I return from the DFW Conference, our lives as we know it will change forever.
Remember, this is pre-school where there are no bottles or binkies EVER. Even if she’s throwing a fit, which is about the only time she wants a binky these days.
In honor of the upcoming changes, I bring you a quick giggle with “The Pacifier War”:
God, those babies crack me up.
Did you have “objects of affection” that were off limits to your kids when they went to school? How did they react? How did YOU handle it? (I’m absolutely dying to get some parental pre-school scoopage…)
Jenny
Jenny Hansen's Blog 
That’s so cute! And neither one screamed or cried. Amazing.
Our kids were definitely binky-lovers, and that’s what we wanted to establish early on, before they found their thumbs. You can take away a binky, but not a thumb.
This was the way we approached it: during their pre-walking stage, they had their binky whenever they wanted/needed it – awake, asleep, whenever. Once they started walking and were doing more walking/carrying of toys, moving around the room, etc., the binky was left in the crib, and they only had it during crib time. They were so busy exploring new skills and territory, they never missed it. Then we started to phase it out during naps. The hardest leap was going completely binky-free at night. Before that milestone, we would go to the store with them, and help them pick out a new special fuzzy animal that they could sleep with as sort of a comfort substitute. Our middle son had a crib quilt that he loved, and he chewed on a corner of it for a while after the binky was gone, and that seemed to help him over the hump. (That quilt was in shreds by the time he was 4, LOL).
Enjoy your fiesta, Jenny!
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No personal Momma stores, but I bring Little Red out to play again. When my stepson and DIL were trying to wean her from her binkie, they left it at home when they went out. Little Red loved to carry purses on a crooked arm when she was a toddler.
At one of her big brothers softball games, Johnny (stepson) found her toodling along with a binkie. He took it away from her. Gave it to her mom. Ten minutes later. She had the binkie again. He took it away, gave to it her mom and told her to put it somewhere where Little Red couldn’t get to it. Ten minutes later. Binkie is back. There was a short tiff between Momma and Papa until they noticed her purse. Johnny opened it. There were still five spare binkies left in that thing.
The moral of this story? Hunh. There is none. Glad you’re back, Jenny. Missed you yesterday!
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Jenny, Loved this! Shared it on my Facebook page!
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My youngest was a thumb-sucker. It was actually nice because we never had to hunt down the dang pacifier from under the car seat where it had picked up lint and dirt and who knows what.
So here’s my I-used-to-run-a-preschool-and-comfort-new-parents advice: When you drop off your daughter, spend a few minutes in the classroom as she checks things out. You’re welcome to give tips to the teacher regarding your particular child, but remember that she cares for children for a living and does know a thing or two about children in general. After a few minutes, tell your child goodbye and that you will return later. Kiss/hug/whatever. Then leave. You child may cry. DO NOT come back. If you she cries and you return, she will think, “Hey, if I just keep crying, Mom will come back!” Then the preK teacher will spend all day trying not to hate your guts because you just made her job that much harder.
As you leave, you may cry. Have a friend or family member you can call who will comfort you and make you feel like an okay mom for (1) leaving your child or (2) blubbering like a baby or (3) drinking a margarita at 9:00 in the morning becauase you left your child and you’re blubbering like a baby. Remember you both will be fine. Within a week or two, she’ll be sharing stories about her newfound friends and you’ll be hanging her macaroni art on your fridge. Preschool can be a fabulous experience for parent and child! Blessings, Jenny.
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None of the wee beasties had any interest in pacifiers. By the time the oldest 3 were off to pre-school there were no must have comfort items. #4 was a thumb sucker, the only one of the boys, and it is coming back to haunt us now as he needs speech therapy. He had to have the tag of his blanket and his thumb. But like his older brothers, by the time he was of pre-school age he’d given up the blanket tag except when he wasn’t feeling well. The thumb was another story. We never lost it, true. But it was always there, no way to wean him off it…hot sauce, HA, he’d suffer licking it off just to get that digit back in his mouth.
Julie gave you the best advice about pre-school/day care. With Baby Girl being your only one, it’ll probably be harder on you than on her. I was shooing them out the door, LOL
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My son never did the binky but had a blankie he loved. He was an older child and still slept with it every night. We took a weekend trip to Branson one time and left it in the hotel. I had to call and get it sent to me lest the world come to an end.
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Gotta watch those tykes. The way they were swapping that pacifier they look like they have a future in politics.
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Adorable video, Jenny! And good luck to you and baby girl with starting school. My twins turn soon 3 and they still drink milk from bottle before going to bed at home (not at daycare) and have pacifiers with them when they sleep (at home and at daycare). They do fine without pacifiers at daycare while awake but the instant I come to pick them up, they demand their pacifiers. And being a sucker mom and not wanting quarrel immediately when we meet again, I give in. I remove the pacifiers when they fall asleep but they still wake up during the night and won’t fall asleep again unless they have their mute buttons to suck. We’re mentally preparing for few hard nights during hubby’s summer vacation when we wean them off the pacifiers and night bottle for good. But until then we’ll indulge them. Life is just so much easier with those little tricks available to us.
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We’re midway through our second preschool year! My kiddo likes to know things in advance, and she likes to carry a stuffed animal everywhere. Last fall, I warned her–starting a week or two before school started–that we don’t bring things to school because they can get lost. Later in the year, on the mornings when she was insistent on bringing an animal to school, I let her bring a toy in the car and we left it in her carseat to wait for her. I promised to take good care of whichever animal it was, and she was thrilled after school to discover a “friend” waiting for her. (I wouldn’t have tried that right away, though, because she would have insisted on carrying the animal into school.)
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I love these comments! We were partying up a storm on Saturday (photo in Monday’s post) but I kept checking my phone and smiling to see all your other parents having these same issues. 🙂
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If the little man doesn’t wean soon, I’m going to be the object affection not allowed in school.
But seriously, our little guy doesn’t have one. He wouldn’t take a bottle or pacifier, hasn’t grown terribly attached to any of his stuffed animals, and hates blankets (I can’t even keep one on him at night when it’s cold).
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That’s hilarious, Amber! I’ve heard of babies that just don’t want to wean, but I’ve never actually known a mom who was going through it. WOW. Poor you (kind of)!
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