Tag Archives: pacifier

I think my kids are trying to tell me something…..

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After the eldest we are now trying to wean the baby – excuse me – big girl n°2  (don’t worry that breaking sound you heard were just the cracks in my heart getting a little deeper) of her beloved pacifier.

It is like she senses what we are trying to do because all of a sudden she has become ve-e-e-e-ry attached to the thing. Whenever we try to put it away silently she will hunt for it until she has found it. And unlike her big sister, she has the intelligence to try to put a chair against a table, climb on the chair and take the paci-prize out of the fruit basket were I hide them. She is a clever one that little one.

The result is that she is running about with her pacifier more often than without. And this pacifier has become the central figure in a new game my girls like to play.

It is called ‘Nice Mommy’.

Here is how it goes:

- One child plays the ‘baby’ and lies down in a tent/on a blanket/the carpet while the other one plays the ‘mama’ and goes to the other side of the garden/room with the pacifier.

- The child lying down starts faux-whining/crying for her ‘mama’.

- The ‘mama’ goes to the cryer and says: ‘don’t cry darling, here is your nice mama with your paci, shush shush’ and gives the ‘baby’ the pacifier.

They hug and cuddle and then the ‘mama’ takes over the role of ‘baby’ and the ‘baby’ goes to play the ‘mama’.

It is very nice to have them play together, but I have a feeling that there is a hidden meaning behind their game and I’m just not getting it…

We are those kind of parents

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My husband and I, we are those parents. Those parents who sometimes dress their eldest child in clothes which would fit better on the youngest, but hey, it is the only clean outfit and let’s call those trousers toddler Capri’s and be done with it.

We are those parents who pride themselves on having successfully weaned the toddler from her pacifier –addiction, but who will turn a blind eye when she manages to sneak one out the drawer and then goes to a quiet corner to avoid detection while she spends some quality time with her prize, because – Hallelujah – she is no longer clinging to our legs!  

We are those parents who rejoice the fact that their children go to bed without a big fuss, who will let them sleep with between them when the need arises and who will moan about this in the morning, but who secretly like the fact that they get to cuddle their young at night. Unless the young have some kickboxing dream of course, then we count bruises and vow never to let them enter our bed again, until we are confronted with a toddler sniffing next to our bed the next night and cannot be motivated to leave the warm cozy bed.

We are those parents who bribe their kids into taking hated medication by the promise of a mini-smartie if they take it without fuss.

We are those parents who congratulate themselves on having thought of the brilliant idea to postpone their own dinner until after the kids bedtime, because Sweet Suri Cruise in High Heels now we finally can eat in peace and the kids are happy too because now mama has time to read two more stories. Two More Bedtime Stories, toddler nirvana was never more beautiful.

We are those parents who will forget that the school will be closed for the day and then have to make a last minute call to a grandmother for back-up. And who will then buy off our guilt at this neglect with a big bouquet of flowers. (You like roses, right mom? Thanks again by the way. Or would you prefer chocolates?)

We are those parents who love to buy books for our children since we want to pass on our love of reading but who will grumble audibly when they ask us to read them ‘Where is the little Dragon’ One.More.Bloody.Time. (I shit you not, as I am typing this the eldest is approaching me with that very same book in her hands, a look of expectancy lightening up her little face like a too dry Christmas tree which has caught fire).

We are those parents.

And you know what?

 

They couldn’t care less because when it comes down to the basics, mommy and daddy love them and they know it.  They have the extra story time to prove it (and yes that is THE book, right there on the lap of the youngest).

 

Battling the Pacifier addiction

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I must start this post with an apology: if you have spoken to me in the last few days and I haven’t replied immediately I’m sorry, but really it is not my fault. At least not directly…

We are currently in the process of depacifiying n°1. And it is a brutal process, but a necessary one. Because all the classic signs are there: changes in behavior, violent mood swings, a loss of interest in activities that where once important, secretive and suspicious behavior. N°1 exhibits all the classic signs of an addiction.

 

 

 

 

Oh I know, it seems so innocent, put a pacifier in the baby’s mouth when it cries and let it suckle happily until feeding time. But it is dangerous as Crack that pacifier. The kid needs it constantly. She will scream for hours when it is taken from her, when I won’t have her let have one she will throw a tantrum and kick around so violently that I wonder if she is the reincarnation of Bruce Lee. She longer wants to play with her puzzles, because puzzles are no fun without a good dose of Paci-Crack. She will sneak into my bag and steal the emergency pacifier I keep there for her younger sister.

No this is not good, we are to blame, I now and it is up to us to get her of the Paci-Crack. This is why my hearing has been temporarily affected and I might not hear you. Last Saturday she cried for a whole hour. A whole hour of non-stop whining and screaming because I had taken away the Paci-Crack, my ears where bleeding, I swear.

We are going about it gently. The new rule is: Paci-Crack is only for sleeping. I now, I now. Cold Turkey might have been better and quicker. But really, I don’t have the hearth for it… I don’t like to see my little baby suffer. And suffer she does without her Paci-Crack. Really, she does! She gets shivers and tears in her eyes. And my hearth breaks when I see her tears. There is the part of me that wants her to stay the cuddly baby who lay next to me in bed after morning feeding, happily sucking on the Paci-Crack, nice and warm next to mama, with a belly full of milk. But then there is the common-sense woman who knows that if she doesn’t take away the Paci-Crack now she’ll be making an orthodontist very rich in a couple of years.

So I now it will have to end soon, soon we will have to take her of the Paci-Crack for good and face the music, in this case ‘Symphony Screaming Tantrum all through the night in D minor’.

I think I better ask the husband to whip up one of these when the moment is there:

Paci-Crack Martini:

Ingredients:

Chilled Martini (yes the one that George Cloonye sells, yeah that one)

Two Ice cubes

Lemon

Tablespoon of lemon juice (depends on your taste, if you like a sour-kick take more, are you more of a sweet tooth, take less).

One lemon wedge

How to

Put the lemon juice in the glass and add the ice –cubes.

Pour in the Martini

Take the rest of the lemon and rub it along the brim of the glass, coating the brim with lemon juice

Add the lemon wedge

Drink (and put ear plugs in, against the screaming)