I'm Proud Of You

Clare reached another milestone this week, one I wasn’t anticipating so soon but am thrilled she has mastered.  It wasn’t necessarily something we were working on, but we saw a widow of opportunity and ran with it. 

Clare loves her sucker, or paci (both Jeff and I can’t stand that word), and would have it in her mouth at all times if permitted.  We had gotten to the point where she was only allowed to have Bunny, which has her sucker attached, when she was in the car, sleeping or when life was just rough and she needed a little extra love.  She wasn’t dependent on her sucker, but she sure loved it.  I wasn’t overly worried about quitting the sucker habit, but did want to conquer it before too long.

Sunday evening while eating dinner we were talking to Clare about what a big girl she was and how big girls did things like sleep in big girl beds, use the potty, wear ‘underwears’ and don’t need suckers.  She made the comment that Abby (baby at daycare) was a baby and needed suckers and wore diapers.  We saw this as our chance, and ran with it.  I explained that yes, she was a big girl and that it would be very nice if she gave her suckers to Abby, and asked her if she wanted to do that.  She seemed pretty excited about it and then helped me find all the suckers and put them in a bag for Abby.  The rest of the evening she talked about how she was going to give her suckers to Abby. 

I was nervous for bedtime, wondering if she would cry and ask for a sucker, it broke my heart to think she was going to be upset and not understand why.  Our bedtime routine did take longer than usual, but I didn’t push it.  We read a number of books, we rocked, we sang songs, I told her I was proud of her, we talked about how she was a big girl and big girls didn’t need suckers, we talked about how she was a big girl for giving her suckers to Abby.  She held onto Bunny and Baby and finally said she was ready for bed.  I put her in her bed and covered her up, that’s when she asked for a sucker.  I reminded her that she was a big girl and that I was so proud of her.  She kept repeating, ‘I’m proud of you’ and said night-night.  It broke my heart.

When I walked out of the room I told Jeff I hoped it wouldn’t be a rough night and there was no way it was going to be that easy.  Sure enough a few minutes later she was crying and calling my name.  I walked in her room and she said she wanted to rock, so we rocked.  While we rocked we talked about how proud I was of her and how she was such a big girl.  Again, she repeated ‘I’m proud of you’ which of course melted my heart.  After a few minutes she said she was ready to go back to bed and I kissed her goodnight again and put her in her bed. 

She seemed to have fallen asleep, but we heard her talking so Jeff took a turn going in.  He said they rocked a bit and talked about how she was a big girl and didn’t need her sucker.  She asked to take her new pink hairbrush to bed with her this time; so back to bed she went.  She stayed up for another half hour talking about brushing her hair and brushing her Baby’s hair.  I think she finally fell asleep around 9:30pm.

It was smooth sailing until 2am when she woke up crying.  I went in and she was upset and wanted to rock, when I picked her up she was soaking, it was the first time I’ve ever had to change her sheets in the middle of the night.  After a bed changed, new jammies and a few minutes of rocking she was ready to go back to sleep, but not without telling me I was proud of her.

I’m not sure if her middle of the night wake up was because of her being wet or because she wanted a sucker, either way it wasn’t too bad.  She did wake up earlier than normal, but was happy so I didn’t mind.  I set her up with breakfast while I took a shower and Jeff caught a few more z’s.  When I got out of the shower I found her in the living room with nothing else but the bag of suckers!  She’d reached up on the counter to get my purse, put it on the floor and taken the bag out.  I reminded her that she as a big girl and asked her if we were going to give them to Abby, she tried to convince me that she should keep just one, but then agreed to put them back in the bag. 

Our drive down the hill was filled with singing and talking about how she was going to give her suckers to Abby.  I’d texted Karen ahead of time telling her of our plan, to which Karen replied that she was excited for Clare but Abby wasn’t going to be there!!!  Ack, my plan was almost busted!!  So, I told Clare that if Abby wasn’t there that Karen would keep them safe for her when she did come.  Fortunately Clare didn’t inquire about the suckers once we got to Karen’s, she was too excited to see Karen after being gone for so long.

So, we are officially sucker free in this house.  She has asked a few times for a sucker, but once we remind her that she’s a big girl she’s ok.  Bedtime has been uneventful since then, although she did wake up again last night, but didn’t need more than a hug, kiss and reminder that she was a big girl before going back to sleep.  She continues to respond to my telling her that she’s a big girl with ‘I’m proud of you’ which will never lose it’s heart melting effect on me. 

I am so proud of my big girl.