Bye Bye Pacifier!

Stella has only had 2 pacifiers left for some time now. Then it became one, and the one she had left had a tear in it, so it was definitely a deficient pacifier. So we'd decided, and she had agreed, to have this coming Thursday night be her last night with a pacifier. We'd already been talking about the Binky Fairy and a Binky prize. Then today I noticed that her one remaining pacifier had a big gaping hole in it and various rips. Not very safe, she'd probably already swallowed some plastic. So I decided I'd talk to Tim and we could decide to either get her another binky, or end Binky time early. Unfortunately, I forgot that she needed her binky for naptime AND bedtime, so at about 20 minutes before her nap, Tim and I decided she was giving her binky up a little ahead of schedule. And effective immediately. Since it was raining, we couldn't hang the binky in a bag in a tree for the Binky Fairy, so she and I went out on the front porch and hung it in a bag on one of the branches we have in a pot out there.

We talked about how the Binky Fairy would give her a small prize, and then we would take her to the Build a Bear Workshop and she could make a stuffed animal and name him Binky. She was very excited. And, shockingly, she went to sleep without any trouble. I thought I'd have to make a super-quick trip to the toy store during her nap, but it was raining cats and dogs outside, so I found a bag of prizes that I'd used when she was potty training and found that I'd added some of our stocking stuffers to it. So the Binky Fairy brought a slinky, bubbles, and a toy airplane. Luckily, because she's only 3, Stella found this bounty to be the coolest thing ever and kept talking about how the Binky Fairy had brought her this awesome stuff. Then she couldn't stop talking about going to the Build a Bear Workshop and building a bear and naming him Binky. I tried to tell her we could go another day, since it was still pouring outside, but kids don't understand waiting. So as soon as Tim got off work (luckily it had stopped raining by then), we headed to the mall to make her new friend.
Giving Binky a bath and brushing his hair. She did this for a long time.
She thought it was most amazing place she'd ever seen and selected a monkey, who she then put in a firefighter suit. Originally the monkey was a boy, but as we were leaving the mall, she declared him a girl firefighter, and of course we told her girls can be firefighters too. So she's sleeping with Binky the Girl Firefighter, her new best friend. She thinks her doll is way cooler than pacifiers. YES! Dressing Binky in her Firefighter suit.

Eating Dinner together.

Now is the time of night when I go crash on the couch. Today was rough, but tomorrow will be rougher: it's the first day I have to do the whole drop Tim off at work/ take Stella to school/ pick Tim up from work thing with two. And tomorrow has the added bonus that we have to take Tim to work early because Stella is having her Spring Program at school, which I'm staying for but Tim can't because he has a meeting at work. We're trying to get out of the house by 7:30am. God help us all!