On New Years Day, my mom and Alexis and I went shopping to use some of our Christmas gift cards. When I got home, Alan had made a "fancy lunch" for Grace and Mae. They were eating our left overs from the night before with classical music playing in the background. They LOVED it!
Then we went bowling with my family - a Sandstrom tradition.
Another Sandstrom tradition is to get together for a nice dinner on New Years Day to make New Years resolutions.
Our first goal as a family was to get rid of Mae's pacifiers. This was definitely a group effort! We told Mae we were going over to Grandmama's house for a "Bye Bye Binki Party." She thought everyone was there just for her. Grace came with me to buy the helium balloons that we were going to attach every binki to, and it was so sweet to see Grace's concern for Mae. She kept saying, "Mae is going to be so sad, Mom." She knew how hard it was going to be for her sister.
While everyone was writing down their resolutions, Mae drew a picture of her pacifier floating up into the air and Grace drew pictures of not hitting Mae and staying dry through the night.
After dinner, we all went outside, attached every biki in the house to helium balloons, clapped while Mae took her last suck of every binki, took pictures and videos galore, and then sent them up to heaven.
She was all smiles when we watched them float away, but as soon as all the excitement was over she said "Why did I let my binkies fly away?" That was the beginning of endless crying and sleepless nights for two weeks. HOLY COW! I felt like I was dealing with a recovering drug addict. I have heard that it takes two weeks to break a habit. It was exactly the 14th night without her pacifier that she slept through the night. FINALLY! Poor girl. I'm glad it's gone, but I'm going to miss her huge, crooked smile behind that thing.
4 comments:
Good job for you too, Erica. It's SO hard having your kids go through adjustments like that. I'm going to have to deal with Anna's thumb one of these days. Unfortunately, I can't send it away with balloons.
yeah for mae! what a fun idea. props to you for waiting the 2 weeks out!. i am so impressed. i love all your traditions... i may have to steal some ideas!
Oh that last picture of Mae waving to the binki's makes me so sad. You know at that point she was thinking "what did I just do." She is so cute! I'm glad she's finally over the binki stuff!
It's been too long since I've been on your blog--I LOVE that Alan made them a fancy lunch. That is so cute. I'd like to think Michael might do something like that...mmm nope!
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