Third Times the Charm for the Binkies! |

We have been trying to have S get rid of his binkies since he turned 3. This week he will be 3 and ¾ years old if you want to be technical. He just was not ready, but we were able to decrease the amount he used them. We had it down to he could only have a binky in the car, bed or if he hurt himself. This summer we had been talking to S about what he wants to do with his binkies when he is done with them. You know you ask the questions: Leave them for Santa Claus? Give them to kids who need them? Throw them away? Give them to Baby A? Send them away on balloons? His choice?

We finally all agreed to make a binky train. What is a binky train, well S is going to take all of his binkies and throw them in a coal car and the car will take them to another kid who needs them. S loved this idea and we told him we would go downtown and stand on the old train bridge to drop them down into a car as it goes under the bridge. We have been asking all summer if we could do this and he just kept saying not yet.

Binky Train!

At the beginning of August, S got hand, foot, & mouth. He didn’t get any blisters on his hands or feet, but his mouth, oh my. He went to bed one night and had a few “canker sores” or so we thought. S has always got canker sores from things jamming into his gums, toothbrushes, binkies, etc. When he woke up the next morning he had like 10 sores some on his lips and even his tongue. So I had a fussy S, and what made it worse was he could not use his binky because it hurt so much. He kept trying though, and just kept crying. After a day or two he stopped trying to use his binkies and was not using them at night. That was the end of the binkies. I just never gave them to him again. He did ask for them a few times, but I would just tell him he didn’t need them anymore. We had some tears but they would quickly subside.

No more binkies!

A few weeks ago, I asked S if he was finally ready to get rid of his binkies and he said yes. So we got a Ziploc bag out and wrote on it a little message for the next kid and S put all of his binkies in the bag except one. He wanted to save one ‘just in case he got hurt real bad and needed it’. His words not mine. I did let him keep one and he ran into his room and hid it that way I couldn’t take it. I can happily report that it has been in his bedroom on top of his bookshelf unused. He has only had one emergency that he said he ‘needed it real bad.’ Although I didn’t think he needed it, I gave it to him because his knees and hands were bleeding from falling down.

Ziploc bag with message

Putting binkies in the bag.

B, S, and I took the binkies to an old bridge downtown that goes over train tracks for Norfolk Southern (NS), and Amtrak. The NS tracks are quite busy and someone is always coming or going. When we pulled up there were two trains on the tracks. One was stopped and one was leaving the train yard. We waited for a train to come and another one did but only had train cars that hold cars. B was afraid if we put it on the top of the car it would fall and then what do we do. So we let that train go and watched as the stopped train finally started moving. No coal cars or open cars for that matter. We waited for at least another 30 minutes and no more trains. The weather was getting hotter and S was starting to get cranky so we decided to come back another day. Try 1-Failure That was on August 20^th.

Walking out on the bridge to toss the binkies!

That night we talked to Papa and told him what S tried to do. Papa told us (or so I told S Papa said this), that we could put the binkies on any car and they would make sure the binkies got put on the right train car. S liked this explanation and I was glad I thought of it, so any train will do and we do not have to wait for a coal car.

After that day we asked S the next day and he said no he didn’t want to get rid of his binky. We asked him almost daily sometimes two or three times a day and the answer was always no. The binky bag did stay in the car just in case we made another stop to try.

This past Tuesday, September 3^rd, we were on our way to the zoo and asked S if we could stop on the way and try again to toss the binkies. S agreed and we made a little detour on the way to the zoo. We went out on the bridge and said we would give it 20 minutes. If we didn’t see any trains we would leave, if we saw some trains we would play it by ear. Well 20 minutes came and went and not one train. Let me remind you these tracks are really busy. The trains leave the NS Megayard on these tracks and are the gateway to the East (Bellevue, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, etc.). We always see trains on these tracks and have waited many times by these tracks to try and see Papa driving a train (Not successful yet with that either!). So we decided to call it a day and head to the zoo. Try 2-Failure

Waiting for a train.

On Friday, September 6^th, we decided to try again before B had to go to work. When we got downtown there was a train stopped with three engines so we knew it would be a long train. We sat and watched and don’t you know they de-coupled the train engines from the cars and headed toward the Megayard. Is our luck really this bad? Nope the train engines backed up, switched tracks (which S loved watching), and took the broken engines to the repair shop. The train engine then de-coupled and headed back to switch tracks and couple up to the train cars.

Train engine switching tracks.

We told S this was it and he didn’t want to throw them he wanted B to. No way, S had to do it, because I did not want to hear “Dada threw out my binkies.” Which I knew would be the case. Train cars came and went and S didn’t like them, cars carrying real tank engines came and S was adamant about not putting them on the tanks. We finally saw the end of the train and told him we had to do it now! I knew I would never be able to capture a picture of the drop because it would be too fast, so I did the next best thing, video. I got a video of it and it happened so fast you can barely see it on the video. Try 3-Success