A Date With the Princess

Ever since she was born, our Princess Charlie has been a "mama's girl." If I am in the same building, I better be with her! I am the one who would put her to bed every night I wasn't working- I work 3 12hr shifts, and on those days Jesse does put her to bed and she is fine with it. However, if I am home, she will not let him put her to bed.

This made bringing Rainbow Evan home pretty stressful for me. I knew from when Charlie was a baby that babies are generally more fussy at night and tend to cluster feed at night. How would I do that plus put Charlie to bed?

*Side note- I tend to take the "Gentle Parenting" approach to motherhood, and cannot stand my babies crying when I know exactly what they want, and it is something as simple as me holding them.

For the first week, I fed Evan, then tried to hurry through bedtime, while hearing Evan crying for me dispite Jesse holding her. We finally talked Charlie into letting daddy do bedtime, and after a few nights she started requesting that daddy go "read bookies" with her (we read books every night at bedtime). She has adjusted great.

Another thing that has become a normal thing since having Evan is that Charlie will do things with only Jesse, leaving Evan and I home by ourselves. He will take her to run to the store, or take the car to the car wash. It hit me a few days ago that Charlie and I had not had alone time since Evan was born. I felt so guilty. She has been fine with it, and has adjusted to having a baby in the house so well. So I decided last night needs to be a "Mommy and Charlie" date.

I knew I wanted to take her to dinner once Jesse got home from work, but I couldn't decide exactly what to do. I finally decided on Bob Evans- she loves the "Piggy Pancakes" and the last time we were there we let her get chocolate milk, and you would have thought we let her go crazy in a toy store!

She was so excited to go somewhere with me- just us two. We sat in a booth next to each other, and she kept leaning on me and hugging me, saying "Just me and you, Mommy!" She had the biggest smile on her face as she said it to. It seriously about made me cry.

When I told her she could drink all of her chocolate milk, she would smile and say, "Thank you, Mommy," in her sweet little voice. Ugh. I wish I could have recorded the whole thing.

It is something so small, but so special. I am also an older sister, like Charlie. I don't ever remember feeling neglected or that my parents had favorites. But I feel so guilty all the time, and think that the girls will feel that we don't love them as much as the other one. This little event between just the two of us is something I can do with each of them periodically. Get time to catch up and relax, just two of us. I can't believe how special she felt. I am so glad I did this, and I know she is too:)

Weaning the Paci

Our Princess Charlie is going to be 3 in June, and she was just NOT giving up that paci. When she was younger, she only used it at bedtime/nap time and in the car. As she has gotten older though, she has become more attached and wants it in her mouth all day long. During my pregnancy with Rainbow Evan, we would prompt her that pacis are for babies, and that she shouldn't have one when baby sister comes since she will be a big girl (her words for herself are "Big Sister Princess"). She would tell us how she was going to be a good big sister and give her paci to baby sister. As you can assume, that didn't happen!


I don't think since the baby that the paci use has gotten worse, but it certainly didn't get better. Recently I saw someone post about a paci weaning system, but it was about $20. It did have great reviews, but I really didn't want to spend that much on pacis. Looking at the system, the pacis essentially had holes in the nipple part of the paci. When Jesse got home from work, he suggested we just cut her two that she had left.

I waited until the next morning, and at 8:30am I cut the tip of both pacis. I was so nervous. I had one laying on the counter (she thought she lost it two days prior), and I put the other one back by her Jake Dog (comfort item) on the couch as if nothing was any different. As Princess Charlie came into the kitchen to get her bowl of cereal, she saw the paci on the counter. "I found it!" She was all too excited, and in my head I thought, "What have you done, you monster!?" As she was reaching for it, she noticed something was wrong, and she told me it was broke. I said, "Oh no, what should we do?" She quickly told me she needed to throw it away, grabbed it, and threw it in the trash can.

After breakfast, we were hanging out in the living room. I was nursing Rainbow Evan, and Princess Charlie climbed on the couch and grabbed Jake Dog and her remaining paci. I was watching her from the corner of my eye, and noticed she kept taking her paci out of her mouth to look at it as if something was wrong. I was expecting her to come unglued, but she would just pop it right back in her mouth. My mind was going crazy, and I just thought, "Oh great. Now we are down to one paci and she will have it the rest of her life."

After about 5 minutes, she said, "Mommy, this paci is broke too, I better throw it away too." At this point my heart was pounding, because I can just picture the tantrums that were going to follow later on that day, and even worse. . . at bedtime. Now, slightly regretting my actions, I said, "Oh, are you sure?" As she was on her way to the kitchen, she just yelled back to me, "Oh yeah! It's broke. I'll throw it away."

Done. We are officially done with the paci! She just kept telling me (and still has been telling people) "I threw my paci away. I'm a big girl now." It is almost like since it was "her" decision to throw them away, it is ok. She is very independent and strong willed. . . I need to remember this tactic to apply to other situations later!

As for the paci weaning system, I believe it would work, as the same basic idea is used. However, if you do not want to spend the extra money, I am living proof that you can just DIY this one, and cut the tip off of the paci. It's worth a try!