Another big milestone

Emerson still takes a pacifier (baba) at naptime and night. It stays in her bed and is really only a sleep soother. We have known that it would need to go away for some time now. We started talking to Emerson about the baba fairy about a month ago. We told her that when she was ready, this special fairy would come and take her baba's away and leave her a prize when she successfully slept without it.

Emerson (who loves all things tinkerbelle and princess) loved the idea of a fairy coming to visit and leave her prizes. From the moment we started talking about this special occassion she has told us that she was ready to give up her baba's. Now, the problem with this was that she would generally tell us this while there was a baba in her mouth- clearly not getting the fact that they would no longer be available- ever.

So, we waited and talked about it and waited and talked. I was really in no hurry because I knew it would happen on its own. Well, we went to the dentist yesterday and he did remind us to do it sooner than later so that her tiny overbite would correct itself. He talked to Emerson about the baba fairy too and really told her how exciting is was and asked her what prizes she wanted the fairy to bring her.

Let me back up a little here. A couple weeks ago while at Walmart, I took Emerson down the toy aisle and told her to pick out some things that she might like from the baba fairy. I promised her that I would pass on her requests to the fairy. Emy was all about the princess stuff...dolls, dress up stuff, etc. Not surprising. The favorite thing she picked out was this Cinderella doll that has a special necklace. You push on the necklace and Cinderella sings you a song. The. same. song. every. time. I am thinking to myself, "okay, so she wants a princess. Fine, but there is no way I am buying a doll that sings the same thing over and over!"

Since that day at Walmart, every person who has talked to Emerson about the baba fairy has asked her what prize she wants. And every. single. time. Emerson has responded with "singing cinderella". Great, my two-year old has a perfect memory and her mind made up.

Fast forward back to yesterday. We came home from the dentist and went along with things business as usual. No intentions of the fairy coming to visit yet. I am sitting in bed with Emerson, reading her stories before naptime and her baba gets knocked down into a crevice behind her bed that 34-week pregnant mommy cannot reach. Uh oh. Emerson looks at me in terror. I calmly tell her that I can't reach her baba and that this would be a great time to practice sleeping without it for the baba fairy. Emerson actually buys it. There are no tears.

She took a little longer than normal to fall asleep at naptime, but she did it! And slept her normal 3 hours! I was so pumped and proud at the fact that there were no tears. When Steve got home from work we decided that we should run with this victory and the baba fairy should come last night.

All is fine and dandy except that I do not have singing cinderella in my posession. I take tinkerbelle with me to Walmart to return it to get this crazy doll that our child has her heart set on. I wait in the ridiculously long Walmart return line. The return is done and I head to the princess toy aisle. I literally freeze in my tracks. NOOOOOOO! I look down the aisle and it is 70% empty! Turns out they had just done inventory on this aisle and had not put everything back yet. There are no singing princesses to be found. I panic.

In my panic, I grab two replacements. Two is better than one right? I grab a plain Cinderella and a Sleeping Beauty that goes in the bathtub.

Last night before bedtime, Emerson wrote the baba fairy a note and we put it on a plate with her baba and come cookies. We leave them out for the baba fairy. At bedtime, there are no tears and Emerson is excited to go to sleep like a big girl. She does great and sleeps all night without a peep.

Emerson woke up this morning extremely cheerful. I went it to get her and the first thing she does is jump up and say "I did it! I slept with no baba! Did the baba fairy come?". Ya'll, it was precious to see how excited she was. I told her the fairy did come and she runs out of bed. She goes to the table to check out her prizes.

The first thing she does is grab Cinderella. She looks at her and then me and says "Does she sing?". Oh man! You cannot fool a 2 year old!

She quickly got over it and is in love with her new dolls and princess music player. She played for 2 hours this morning by herself with her new things. It was a sweet reward for both of us!