The end of an era in our family...

Taken from a Scrapshare post...

The Binky Era. 4 kids; 4 binkies. As we were told that after age 3 binkies and bottles, etc. can cause some serious damage to teeth, we set the binky cut-off at age 3. We took each of the kids to the toy store and allowed them to "buy" a toy of their choosing (which some major help and persuasion from Mama!) with their binky.

Georgia Kate turned 3 in October and she still had a binky as of yesterday. We've been talking about trading it in and yesterday when we asked if she was ready, she said yes.

She wandered through Toys R Us but didn't find anything that really grabbed her until she saw the Piglet slippers. That was it! And they were cheap, too. BONUS!

She paid, the cashier chucked the binky (less temptation on our part to return it when the going gets tough), and we headed home.

Last night GK didn't cry at all. Things were good. She woke up once and asked me if she could have her binky back, but it was a pretty smooth night.

Today was a different story. GK used her binky as a comfort thing when she was upset. Something upset her and she sought out her Shirty (one of my shirts) and binky. Binky, of course, was not here. She freaked. Screamed for 45 minutes. I held her, consoled her, offered to read to her...nothing could distract her from her complete and utter sadness at the loss of binky. It broke my heart.

She finally stopped crying, said she wishes she could take her piggy slippers back and trade them for the binky, but she managed to move on. Not another tear was shed and she went to sleep without incident.

We'll see what tomorrow holds. I'm glad to be finished with them for many reasons, but there's part of me that is sad too. My kids are growing up, and that's bittersweet.