We decided this Christmas without consulting Ollie that it was time to lose his dummy, he was all for the idea too, we talked about it for weeks before, we told him that we were going to give Santa his dummy and asked him what he would like Santa to give him in return.
His response "A present" - an easy child to please, I must admit the idea of just wrapping up a box did cross my mind...but when further probed we were told that he would like a blue train. Again a request not to hard to accomodate for my train obsessed little man.
And so the dasdardly night arrived. We put Ollies dummy (fondly known as E - which I might add sounds just fantastic when you are walking down the street offering your two year old his "e") in a Christmas stocking and left it along with a beer for Santa. It took him a few goes to put it in there, he kept having one last suck and then telling us that he really didn't want to give it to Santa, "Yes you do" we told him enthusiastically.
Bedtime.....more like nightmare time. The tantrums and crying started, I might add this was at 9pm and we still had a whole lot of Santa business to attend too. More crying, more tantrums and finally we managed to get him to sleep we even let him sleep in our bed because we felt so damn guilty about the whole affair, but guilt or not the dummy was going.
And so Ollie asleep, Flynn wakes for a feed an hour later we finally attend the that secret Santa business. Just as we were finishing up Ollie woke again crying and asking, begging, pleading for his E. One of us held him back to stop him from coming out and giving the Santa game away. We finally all climbed into bed together and Ollie lay pining like a little puppy for his lost "E".
Finally Ollie drifted off to sleep broken hearted, DD passed out and of course, Flynn woke for a feed, so I sat up by myself with my eyes hanging out of my head longing for bed and wondering how I would make it through Christmas day....Merry Christmas me. I probably managed about an hour and a half sleep that night, so there was no damn way I was giving in after all that pain.
The next night was not so bad, he asked for it a couple of times, but I must admit we kept him out late and drove around til he fell asleep in our car to save ourselves some pain, and attempt to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Same for the next night and then the night after that, it wasn't asked for.
And so finally we are dummy free. The blue train was a hit and now Im shoving one in Flynn's mouth so we can go through the pain all over again in two years time.
