At the first of last year I started thinking about Lilly and
her binky. It was getting to be about that time when we needed to get rid of
the binky(ies). Since 2013 included some large changes for her such as a big
girl bed, potty training and a new brother I decided to let her keep it until
her 3rd birthday. I started thinking about how
we were going to get her to say goodbye to the binky without a lot of fuss and
I decided to try using the binky fairy method. (If you are unfamiliar with this
method I will be explaining it.)
I looked online for a binky fairy book that I could read to
Lilly but I couldn’t find any I liked. So I wrote my own story and let Lilly
draw the pictures. I liked this process better because it got Lilly more
involved in the story, it was fun and Lilly took pride in the book and wanted
to read it frequently. After the pictures were done I had it laminated and
bounded so it was easy to read. Here is
the finished project. Sorry the pictures are bad. The lamination made it hard to photograph.
Once
upon a time there was a beautiful baby born and her name was Lilly.
On the
day she was born she was visited by a beautiful fairy that had a wand and a
pink dress. The fairy gave Lilly a binky and told Lilly that she could keep it
for a little bit. But when she got bigger she needed to give the binky back to
the fairy and the fairy would give it to a new baby. Lilly loved her binky.
Lilly
was getting bigger and was about to have a birthday and turn 3 years old. She
was going to have a big birthday party and invite all of her friends.
Because
Lilly was becoming a big girl it was time for the Binky Fairy to come and visit
her. Lilly knew that when the Binky Fairy comes she will take Lilly’s binky
away and replace it with a present. Then the Fairy will deliver all the binkies
she has collected to new babies all over the world who don’t have binkies of
their own.
To get
ready for the Binky Fairy Lilly made a special binky bag. She colored it and
put sparkles all over the bag.
The
night the Fairy was scheduled to arrive Lilly put her binky in the bag and went
to bed. In the morning she found a very special present that she wanted, in the
bag.
Lilly
was sad for a little bit to say goodbye to her binky but she was happy to get a
present. She was also happy that her binky went to a new baby and made them
happy. Pretty soon Lilly didn’t miss her
binky anymore.
When doing the binky fairy method you are supposed to ask
the child if they are ready for the fairy to come. Then when they say yes that
would be the night the fairy would arrive. However, Lilly would never say she
was ready and I knew she never would be so I just scheduled a day. Lilly made
her bag, we put the binkies in it with no tears and in the morning she found
paints in her bag. She looked at the paint and then asked me when the binky fairy
was coming back to give her back her binkies. I told her the binkies were gone.
That night I heard her in her room crying and saying she wanted her binkies
back. It was heart breaking but I didn’t give in.
Since then she has cried about her binkies 4-5 more times.
It is always when she is really tired. She also likes to dress up and ‘be’ the
binky fairy. She talks about the fairy coming back for Bennett’s binkies and
wants to still read her book. I won’t let her read it anymore though because it
always makes her sad. Overall I thought the binky fairy method worked well. She
no longer uses binkies and it was done with very little drama.
