Binki Bear and the Tooth Fairy

April 24th...

I have already told the story of how Cohen lost his front tooth.  But, I have not yet told the story of EVERYTHING that happened because Cohen lost his tooth. 

While receiving directions on after care for Cohen, the dentist told us that we had to stay away from everything that causes suction in the mouth for 48 hours (to prevent dry socket).  This would have been no big deal except for the fact that Cohen is a binki baby.  I was lucky because I started weaning him the last few months by taking his binki away during the day, and only giving it back to him for naps and night time.  But there was no way that I was going to take it away from him on doctor orders just to give it back to him a few days later.

My good friend had a binki baby and she took her daughter to Build-a-bear, took all of her binkis, stuffed them in the bear and her little girl never looked back.  I thought this was a great idea.  So, I took Cohen and Arlo to Stuffington Bear Factory (there is no build-a-bear close to us, but Stuffington bear factory is horrible!  Their bears are not soft and they are expensive, and they do not have anything that you can but inside the bear.  I was very disappointed.) and we did the same thing.  Here are the pictures...  

It was going wonderfully!  He was so excited about his new bear!  Now, I am not so naive that I did not think he was not going to cry for the first few nap/nights just because he got a bear.  But, that would have been nice compared to what we went through that first week!  Every nap/night time for the first week we went though hell.  He screamed, he cried, he shouted "I HATE my binki bear" he shouted he hated me, he threw everything off his bed, settled down enough for me to think the worst was over and put everything back on his bed just for him to do it again.  On good nights after 5-10 minutes of tantrums he would settle down enough for me to hold him and love on him, basically rocking him to sleep.  But that only happened on good nights/naps.  In his defense, he must have gone through lots of pain with that abscessed tooth, then to have it taken out and loose his binkis in the same day with no warning... I am sure it was hard on him.  After about a week, the major fits slowed down but did not stop.  Here we are at the end of June and still he throws tantrums when it is time to go to bed, or he plays in his bed for over an hour before he falls asleep.  I have learned that with our next child, if he/she is a binki baby I am taking it away before they turn two.  They get too attached and they have to completely relearn how to fall asleep.  It is too hard for all parties involved.  The GOOD news in all of this... Cohen is binki free!  I have literally freed up at least 10 minutes of every day that I had dedicated to finding his binkis because they were never where they were supposed to be.  Oh, one last thing... Cohen still does not like his binki bear very much:-)

Along the same lines of all this madness... Cohen lost his first tooth!  Which means that he got a visit from the tooth fairy!!!!!!!

She left him a note telling him how excited she was that he lost a tooth even though it was not time to lose it yet.  And then she gave him... 

 3 GOLDEN DOLLARS!!!!!

He got three because he was so brave.  He was so excited and Arlo was so jealous!  But they both are being very careful to keep their teeth healthy and clean because the tooth fairy also told Cohen that she will not take dirty teeth:-)