The Potty, The Binky and The Sippy Cup Fairy... Oh My!

*** I found this post I had written back in December, I thought I'd just post it now***

I had several goals for my kids to accomplish while I was off track:

1. Potty train Ryan:
this turned out 100 times easier than I thought it would (and I thought it was going to be pretty easy). Like I did with Allie, I used the same method. He had ONE accident on his first day (only because he was REALLY excited when Daddy came home) and 2 accidents (while in a long drive in the car) a week later. None since! My wallet thanks him. We are OFFICIALLY a diaper FREE house! Woo hoooooooo!!!!

2. Break Ryan of the Binky:
I seriously thought this was going to be hard on him. I had all of these plans to cut the Binky's tip off a little at a time until he gave it up but I didn't have to do any of that. I put him down for his nap one day last week and realized I had left it on the kitchen counter. I decided just to see what would happen...if he would even notice. The boy didn't even ask for it, can you believe it? Later that evening when he was going to bed he asked for it once but I told him it was broken and we had to go get a new one. He just said, 'Okay, Mama' and that was it! Easy Peasy.

3. Get rid of those darn sippy cups:
Those sippy cups, arrrrghh! I've been trying to rid my children of these for quite a while, but Allie wasn't going to have it. Allie is incredibly attached to these cups, like a baby bottle. Essentially that is what they are - baby bottles! It was getting so bad that Allie was forgoing food, just to have a sippy cup. Enough was enough. I had pictures in my head of Allie heading to Kindergarten with one of these cups in her lunch pail. I figured I'd wait until I was off track and we'd just go cold turkey. Then my sister in law came up with the idea of the 'sippy cup fairy'. I talked about the Sippy Cup Fairy for days. I told them how she'd come get the cups and leave new big kid cups for them plus a little present for being a big boy/girl.

So we gathered all the cups...

and put them in a bag to leave on the front step just before bed time. Allie was very nervous, but curious.

I got glitter, 'fairy dust' and some prizes and set it up like this. I so wish the camera could capture how sparkly it really was. I was so nervous about this that I bought 3 different kinds of cups.

Checking the door the next morning...

She came! Ryan was super excited, super stoked, and super willing to try out his new cups. He got a Thomas the Train movie and Allie got an Olivia book she had been asking for. However, she was none too thrilled that the cups were gone. She wasn't that impressed at.all. She just wanted her cups back.

Unfortunately for Allie, those cups were NOT coming back. It took her 2 whole days before she would drink anything at all, it was pretty awful. I finally had to threaten her with going to the doctor and she started drinking from the straw cups. It has been 3 months and those sippy cups are now a distant memory, not even thought about anymore. We actually gained a few things since she stopped using sippy cups : she eats!! She used to be the pickiest eater, sometimes using the sippy cup for food. Now she eats her whole plate, tries new foods, AND drinks out a straw cup like a normal person would. Now I know for sure she will not be taking sippy cips in her lunch pail to Kindergarten. Whew!

Being a parent is hard.