Bye Bye Blankie

 It's official - no more blankie for Gavin!  I don't know if you remember any of my previous blogs, but this kid has sucked on his blanket since he was about 6 months old. It was about the time that we got rid of his pacifier, that he switched to sucking on his blanket. The "original blankie" eventually became replaced with a second blanket and then we had "school blankie". School blankie existed primarily because the first 2 blankets were so disgusting that I couldn't bare the thought of him taking it to school for others to see and smell.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had been prepping him that when he turned 4 the Blankie Fairy may come and take his blanket and give it to a little boy who needed it. If it weren't for the fact that he sucked on it (and his teeth/bite were developing like that of a thumb sucker) I would not have cared if he kept his blankie!

March 2011

His 4th birthday was at the end of April. He went about a week with keeping it out of his mouth. He would say things like, "Blankie, I love you sooooo much!" and "I just need to suck on him for ONE second." I would go in his room at night, pull it out of his mouth and lay it on the floor at the end of his bed.  He would wake up in the morning and that blanket would be right back in his mouth!

The turning point was our trip to Arizona. Gavin made the decision on his own (with a little encouragement) that he didn't need to take blankie to Arizona. He just wanted to take his friend Moosey (his stuffed moose). Although he woke up in the middle of the night every night wanting his blanket, he surprisingly went right back to sleep. I'm sure the exhaustion from the heat and all the swimming helped. 

When we arrived home from Arizona, to our surprise the Blankie Fairy had come! She left him a note and was very proud of him for being such a big boy. The time had come for her to take his blanket on to some other little fella who may need it. It was rough those first few nights. Lots of tears were shed! "I didn't want to turn 4! I still wanted to suck on my blanket!", "I didn't want that blankie fairy to come!", were just a few of the heart breaking things I remember him saying.

It is now July 10th and blankie is a thing of the past. The new issue now is Gavin wanting Donnie or I to lay with him every night. Any advice on that one?