Binkies Broken

The twirls are speaking more English (not Twirlese) but we can't always understand them.  It's like we're playing an infinite game of mad libs!  The Early On coordinator set up our last two visits with a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) to help with their diction.  Our visit with her was very helpful.  She made us feel better about their delays - normal age-appropriate stuff.  She gave us an idea of how to help them work through little issues.  Then she threw a big wrench in our little system.  She asked us if they still used binkies.

The twirls love their binkies.  I decided that we were going to let them keep them until things settled down after the new baby.  The dentist said it was fine until they are 4.  They only use them at night so I really didn't see the point of getting rid of them.  But the SLP said that the binkies were making the problem worse.  For 12 hours every night they are making a sucking motion with their tongue.  Then during the day when they are trying to form words their tongues want to make that same binky motion instead of the proper shapes.

Darn it!  She was the first person who actually gave us a good reason to get rid of them.  And it was affecting their speech, which is a big part of our lives right now.  I told Jake we needed to just pull the plug that weekend.  We had been reading this book called, "No More Pacifier Duck"; the twirls hate this book.  They get so sad for duck and his sad sad story.  So I knew that acting it out wasn't going to be easy.  I decided the easiest way was to just rip off the band-aid and cut them so they couldn't ask for them again.

You can see their reaction.  Ironically Scarlett was the only one who cried that night.  Siena kept saying "binky broken" over and over.  At first I said it was the binky fairy, then I decided that wasn't a good explanation for my logical kids.  You can watch their reaction here if you want:

That night when they were in bed, Jami heard Scarlett saying a prayer in their room "Please bless that they'll think they are just for decoration and not for sucking on so that they won't miss them."  How sweet!

The next day we told the twirls they were "big girls" so we took them to Target to get Scarlett's bday presents and a very special "big girl" treat.

The next few days were pretty rough.  Lots of crying and lamenting.  Siena even woke up saying "binky broken!"  It's a very popular topic of conversation our home.  We're still adjusting but things are getting easier.  This is our current night time routine....

Bath time:

Checking ourselves out in the mirror:

Putting "towel flowers" on our heads.  Scarlett said "Look Siena, the towels unfold.  They get bigger just like humans do."  haha!

Scripture study: (mostly includes doing the hidden pictures in the Friend magazine and talking about a few gospel photos).

Family prayer: (It's really cute cause the twirls usually copy our words as we pray.) FYI, these photos were taken a few nights BEFORE we got rid of the binkies.

After prayers they get rewarded with "tunnel time" (we stole the idea from the Sawayas).  We sing "Tunnel Time, Tunnel Time, Tunnel Time..." to the theme of the A-Team.  We do different types of tunnels every night.

Then we sing songs and give kisses.  The girls also like to "ugga mugga" my belly (like from Daniel Tiger).  Siena also went through a phase where she would wait til you were really close to give her a kiss and she'd yell "go away!"  haha!

One day Jami put the twirls down for a nap.  They kept telling her that they were afraid of a "monster ghost."  So Jami told them that they should say a prayer.  They climbed right out of bed and kneeled down on the floor.  Then they said a sweet prayer together that there would be "no monster ghosts."  Then they jumped up and were totally fine.  What a great moment to see their tender little testimonies!

One night we heard Scarlett screaming "I'm stuck!  I'm stuck!!!!"  She had crawled under Jaide's bed to find something and couldn't get out.  Jake went up to rescue her while Jami and I watched, took screenshots, and tried to keep our chuckles quiet.  haha!

I hate to admit it, but I think that the twirls are done with daily naps.  This entire week I only got them to nap once.  :-(  Nap time was mommy's nap time too!  Then a few nights ago, Scarlett woke me up EIGHT times!?  She just couldn't sleep and apparently I had to join her.  This was one day the twirls didn't want to nap, but they needed to cause they were sick.  Eventually they fell asleep, but when I looked at them on the camera I noticed that Jaide was wearing her backpack.  haha!  (sorry that the screenshots of our monitor don't turn out super great).

Another night Scarlett came in my room with a nightmare.  I made her go potty (my mom taught me that sometimes a full bladder can be the real problem).  Then I got a Hershey's Kiss and started unwrapping it.  Scarlett said "Oh cute, is the baby hungry."  hahaha!  I told her "No silly!  This is for you to help you have sweet dreams."  I think it's sweet that she didn't assume it was for her though.  The little treat seemed to help her snap out of the bad dream mode she was in.  It's worked a few different times too.