It’s the beginning of August and Owen is finally rid of his soother. Over the past year we have been slowly moving him away from it, to the point that he was now just getting his soother at naptime and bedtime and was down to only one soother. One evening, Owen and Brandon were in the bathtub, Grandma K was washing their hair and brushing their teeth; I was getting their beds ready, pj’s out and story books ready for bedtime when I walked into Owen’s room to find Ruggles (Grandma K’s dog) chewing on something on the floor. Thinking it was only his paw, I nudged him and when he scrambled to get up I found Owen’s last soother, chewed into two pieces. Immediately I was thinking oh no, it was bedtime and Owen has no soother! Grandma K and I talked to Owen while he was in the tub and explained what happened. Owen seemed okay about it, but once he climbed into bed he asked — Mommy, did you fix my soother? I explained again what happened and that there was no more soothers. Owen needed some extra hugs that night. Each night for about a week, Owen would ask if Mommy or Daddy had fixed his soother yet and each night Owen would need some extra hugs. He transitioned from his soother surprisingly well and now doesn’t even give it a second thought.
Grandma K felt so bad about the whole thing that the next day we all went to Build A Bear so Owen and Brandon could both create their own bedtime BIG boy teddies. Owen picked a monkey, chose that it should roar like a dinosaurs and dressed him up just like Woody the Sheriff from Toy Story. Brandon picked a bear, chose that it should also roar like a dinosaurs and dressed him up like an Oilers Hockey player. And I might add, Grandma K tried her best to get Brandon to pick Montreal Canadians over Edmonton Oilers but she couldn’t fool him!!
Owen and Brandon very much love their new bedtime teddies!