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April 1, 2010
Suck
Last night, Owen threw a big ol' fit at bedtime. It started when I didn't let him play with his water cup, got worse when I took him at his word when he yelled "NO" when I asked him if he wanted his story and paci, and hit supersonic when he punched me in the neck with the paci when I gave it to him and I put him to bed without it.
Normally, I would have given the paci back to him when he calmed down enough to be reasonable about taking it, but it occurred to me that he shouldn't have the damn thing anyway. I had promised myself that I'd have him weaned off it by the time he was two, but I've been selfishly enjoying my sleep too much to mess with it. In the last few months he seems to have grown more attached to the thing, making me think this whole process isn't going to be pleasant.
I'm feeling a bit guilty (me, feel guilty?) about the way I started this, on a tantrum and not with a reasonable explanation and a big hug. The end result would probably have been the same though, some screeching and begging and hours later some sad calls for Daddy. And things have worked out well since then, with the reasonable explanation happening at naptime today (about half a dozen times), followed by 10 minutes or so of halfhearted complaints. Tonight, Rex only had to tell him the paci's were gone once or twice, and that was the end of it. I'm not fool enough to think that this is the end of the story, but it seems to be going well so far.
And yes, I still wish I had done last night a little differently. Maybe we could have avoided some of the screaming. But I don't think he's going to be permanently scarred, and I do think that it needed to be done.
Now, I have to go hide those damn pacifiers before he sees one.
Posted by me at April 1, 2010 10:27 PM