Bye Bye Beppy!

It's over! The beppy era has officially come to an end! I know, I'm probably speaking too soon, but we're gonna try and be stong! ;)

We took Yums to the mall this morning to have a bye bye beppy party and say good-bye to his beloved pacifier. I'm quite proud of the idea I came up with that would enable him to keep his pacifier close by without his being able to suck on it and additionally provide him with a transition object! "Welcome to Build-A-Bear!" William was SO excited to see all the animal friends and very quickly picked out a turtle. His "tickle turtle" puppet is his favorite stuffed toy and he immediately screamed "TWO tickle turtle!" While he made his decision I filled the super nice employee in on our plan...she thought it was brilliant! She explained a little to William about the process and asked him if he wanted to step on the pedal to fill up the turtle with stuffing. That was a no-go as soon as he heard the noise. Yums does NOT like strange noises!! The woman filled him up then asked Yums to hug him to see if he was soft enough then told him to pick out a heart to put inside (10 minutes later there were 50 little red hearts on the floor because he thought it'd be fun to make a mess in them). Then she went through this little ritual, having Yums give the heart a kiss and then closing his eyes and making a wish before tucking the heart inside his new friend. He listened so well and did everything she asked. Then she had him put his pacifier inside before she sewed him up. He didn't hesitate at all! Once he was sewn up we asked him if he wanted to pick out clothes for his turtle but all he wanted to do was go "buh buh bye." While Daddy was paying I showed him the special message Mommy recorded for him and tucked inside turtle's hand. It's from the book "Pacifiers Aren't Not Forever"...I said "bye bye beppy, no more beppy, put beppy in the trash. Mommy and Daddy are SO proud of you!" The look on his face when he heard it was absolutely priceless. After we left Build-A-Bear we got him a cookie (yep, it was 9:30) and walked around a bit. As soon as we entered Baby Gap William told the first person he saw "BYE BYE BEPPY!!!" He was so proud of himself and wanted to tell everyone. I am so thrilled with how part a) of the transition went!
















Then we messed everything up. We took him to get a haircut. It started well...then 5 minutes in he was screaming bloody murder, had thrown his lollipop down which shattered into a million little pieces, and we had to leave with it half cut because other than sitting on top of him we were not going to get him to cooperate. We drug him out of the mall kicking and screaming, which he continued the entire ride home. THE END