Goodbye Soothers, Hello Blankies!

The deed is done.

Owen and Will and I drove to Stef's place late Thursday afternoon, and I chatted away in the car to the boys about how proud I was that they were going to be saying goodbye to their soothers and how Stef had made them some lovely blankies just for them. We talked about how they could give her the soothers in exchange for the blankets, how cozy the blankets would be and how great it would be to take them to the cottage for Christmas to show Gran and Grandpa. They were both fairly chatty in the car about what was going to happen, but they clearly weren't entirely on board.

"Maybe we can buy new soothers next week," suggested Owen.

"Maybe Stef can fix our broken soothers," mused Will.

"No, guys, I'm afraid not. We're going to have to say goodbye to the soothers tonight, because you're big boys and the soothers are making your ears hurt. But you can give them to Stef and she'll give you the blankies, okay?" Don't overdo it, Pasc, I kept muttering to myself.

"I don't want to give Stef the soothers. I'm shy," said Will. Oh boy, I thought, here we go. "Can you give them to her?" Okay, at least he wasn't saying she wasn't going to get them at all.

Well lovely, lovely Stef (if you haven't been to her Straight Stitch site, please do. You can check her out on her etsy site or you can go to her facebook fan page to see all the fantastic things she makes. And clearly, she does amazing custom orders) invited us into her home, where Will and Owen were completely distracted by her daughters' toys and hardly glanced at the beautiful blankets she'd made. I, on the other hand, was thrilled. I suggested that maybe the boys might want to thank Stef and pay her with the soothers and internally cringed, waiting for the crying to start. But both boys just handed over their beloveds like it was no big deal and ten minutes later we were back in the car and they were all bundled up in their cozy new comforters.

I'll admit there were a few mini-hiccup-cries on the way home, but all in all, it went very smoothly during the drive and once home, the guys played with their blankets and took them upstairs all by themselves. But come bedtime, Owen was quite upset.

"I want my sooooooooder!" he sobbed into my shoulder, as I patted his back in bed. "I don't want my blankie!"

"I know you're sad and that's okay," I said, "but we've said goodbye to our soothers. Do you want me to take the blanket back to Stef if you don't want it?"

"No! I want my blankie! But, but, but, I want my sooooooooooder!"

William was far calmer, more annoyed that Owen kept crying and being "too noisy", but he did tell me he needed something "to go in my mouth". Not necessarily his soother, just something in his mouth. Is this how kids start smoking?

After about forty minutes of me going in and out of their room to comfort them, they did fall asleep and slept soundly throughout the night. In the morning, they woke up and dragged their new blankets into our room which pleased me. Naptime today was another twenty minutes of Owen sobbing his heart our for his soother whilst Will complained about the noise and requested something for his mouth. I find it so interesting that he didn't want a soother, just something. Maybe his mouth feels odd without it?

Anyway, they napped for a good three hours (and so did I - bliss!) and this evening before bed, Owen told me "I not going to cry when I sleep" and lo and behold he didn't. William was a bit more out of sorts, but after some chatting between the brothers they've fallen asleep again without too much interference from me. I'm really quite pleased by it all. Now, Mark has been working very long and very late hours this week, so perhaps when he's home tomorrow there will be some acting up to see if Daddy will cave on the no-soother front, but I'm anticipating that by this time next week we'll be done talking about soothers and just enjoy the coziness of the new blankies.

I had hoped to have some photos of the boys asleep with unobstructed mouths and the blankets tucked in around them, but my camera battery has died and I can't find the charger. I'll look this evening and hopefully have some up for you this weekend. In the meantime, Stef has some photos of them on her facebook fan site, so there's one more reason to have a peek.

On a final note, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all their advice and encouragement in regards to getting rid of the soothers. I know in a couple of months I'll be facing new challenges and this will seem like such a minor issue, but when you're living it, it always feels all-encompassing. It was nice to know you understood what a big deal this was for all of us.