We're trying to tone down binky use around here. Eli is at that point where he putters along happily without a pacifier, so why let the habit get too ingrained? Most of the binkies live in Eli's crib now, although he does get one in the car seat and sometimes the stroller.
When Eli wakes up in the morning, we gently pull the binky out of his mouth. (He's usually slurping away on it, so this involves a soft, cartoonish "pop" sound.) Then we say, "Night, night binky!" and the pacifier goes back into the crib until naptime. Last Monday was overcast, so in the semi-darkness we bid the binky adieu and sat down in the rocking chair together for a snuggle
. Lo and
behold, he had a binky in his mouth!
Huh? So for a second time, we carried the
binky back over to the crib, wished it good sleep, and dropped it to the
mattress.
I turned to kiss Eli on the cheek and discovered he had a binky in his mouth!
It was too dark for me to notice when I got Eli out of bed, but he must have had not just a binky in his mouth but one in each hand as well.
We liberally sprinkle the crib with binkies so Eli can find one at any time during the night. And I've noticed that binkies fall prey to the "grass is always greener" principle. When Eli is still groggy from sleep, he'll sit up in his crib. Wobbling and rubbing his eyes, he glances around. A binky! When he sees one, he pounces on it and shoves it into his mouth. But this involves letting the binky he already had in his mouth fall to the mattress. More eye rubbing and then... Hey! A binky! Sure enough, he'll spit out the one he's sucking on to get the one he just spied...even if it is the same one he dropped just a moment ago. Once I witnessed "the old binky swapperoo" eight times in a row.
One morning this week I found an orange binky on the far side of Eli's bedroom floor. It came from the crib and Eli must have
thrown it about six feet. Pretty
good arm for a nine month-old. Usually one or two binkies get shoved out the sides of the crib and simply land on the floor below. Recently, though, I've been finding binkies stuffed into the corners of the crib, squirreled away between the wooden slats and the mattress. Perhaps Eli is preparing for winter?
But I think binkies are the most comical when Eli is in the car. At stoplights I glance in the back seat and sometimes Eli has a binky held aloft. His chubby hand rises and falls, sweeping back and forth with the pacifier in his fist. It really looks like Eli is pretending the binky is a space ship. I imagine him thinking, "Zoooooooooom!"