the binky fairy arrives

okay, so elenora is sleeping her first night without a binky.  we've been telling her that the binky would need to go around Christmas time, and we were wondering whether to do it before or after Christmas, and then we decided that we'd do it tomorrow night because she doesn't have school the next day, but then tonight at dinner she said she was ready.  i kept asking if she really wanted to do it tonight or tomorrow night, but she said she was ready tonight.

it didn't hurt that the "binky fairy" had left a present in my safe-keeping to give to elenora when she was big enough to give her binkies to the babies.  we brought the present downstairs and gathered all the binkies (she only slept with one, but there were back-ups and rejects in a bin) and we put them in her pink music box and placed them out on the doorstep for the binky fairy to come collect.  ella was so excited about it.

then we opened her gift, which was a calico critters set with a baby mouse on a rocking horse, a big sister mouse, and a friend sitting on a toy car.  i told ella that the binky fairy gave her this gift because she's not like a little baby who would put small things like a binky in her mouth--she's a big girl now.  i told her she can sleep with the little critters.

we talked about what she could do if she wakes in the middle of the night and thinks "i need my binky" and she played out the scenario a couple of times.  when i shut off the light and said good night, she just went off to sleep sweetly.

now hopefully she won't wake up in the middle of the night saying "i need my little critters"!!!

now i'm going outside to remove the binkies from the box and leave a note and a small present (blue nail polish) from the binky fairy in their place.