Bye-bye binky

The binky is dead. Long live the binky!

A few weeks ago (a few weeks after Melina's third birthday), the Binky Fairy came and took Melina's binkies away, leaving a few nice gifts in return. (After many weeks of predicting the Binky Fairy's visit, we solemnly rounded them up, put them in a brass teapot, and left the teapot on the porch. In the morning, two Thomas train engines and a purple bouncy-balloon had miraculously appeared). The binkies themselves will take a nice vacation before being assigned to new babies around the world.

Melina took the transition surprisingly well. I was dreading it with most of my being, but there was only one bad night (unless you count the Bad Night several weeks later, which I will write about in a minute). Melina was sad on and off for about 24 hours; after that she squared herself to the new reality and marched on in her inimitable Melina way.

By the way, part of the impetus for this transition was a trip to the Dentist, who seemed irritated that we had allowed Melina to keep the binky so long. He pointed out how her mouth was being deformed and assured us we would need orthodontic work. (Other than that, the first real dentist visit was a walk in the park!).

Despite the Binky Fairy's thorough efforts to round up all the binkies in the house, I found one on my bedside table about two weeks later and found the all-time favorite "lellow" binky on the kitchen counter yesterday. I have no idea where it came from, but luckily I found them before Melina did.

Now if I could only get her to fall asleep in the car....