Monday, January 19, 2009

Life with a toddler...

Soooo....for months, Odin and I have been talking about how it would be a great idea to put all of his "babu's" aka pacifiers in a bag and hang it in the tree and the "Babu Fairy" will come and get them and bring them to the babies who need them and will leave him a present in return. I read that the best age to try to get rid of pacifiers is 2 1/2 so I wasn't really pushing it too hard. Most of the time, he would get all excited and say he wanted to do it right now and then when it came down to realizing that they would really be gone, he would decide against it. Sometimes, at bedtime with his "Babu" in his mouth, he'd check with me to make sure that the "Babu Fairy" wasn't going to come and take his pacifier while he was sleeping to which I assured him that she woould not take the babu's until he was ready. So, tonight, I was telling babysitter and our friends that were visiting the story of the "Babu Fairy" and Odin decides he is ready right now. He gets a bag, bags up his babu's and goes out to hang them on the tree. Um, ok. I waited to see if he would chicken out. Instead, he finds another babu under the couch and runs out and puts it in the bag too! Um, what??? Now I'm in full on panic mode. I have NO present from the Babu Fairy for tomorrow morning. I can't run out on my guests who just arrived to make us dinner to buy one! Who would be open at this time of night? The babysitter's on her way out and has plans...can't ask her to go buy something and come back...can't leave the guest with two toddlers and a baby! Odin would freak anyways, being left with a practical stranger...but the fairy HAS to leave a present! I can't do it in the morning before they wake up, there's no one to stay with them! I make an emergency call to my neighbor. She doesn't answer the phone. I walk around the house, brainstorming what I could give him from my household crap that would be exciting and seem like something he'd never seen before. Oh dear. 9:00PM: Another panic call to a friend...wait...you're OUT RUNNING ERRANDS!!!!!! Oh my god, I have an emergency, my little boy has decided to grow up and I'M NOT READY!!!! Can you please please please find an appropriate gift at the drug store and drop it off at my house secretly since the boy is still awake and leave it on the doorstep? Sure enough, she came through for me. There was a "hot diggity dog" gift bag with markers, stickers saying AWESOME, TERRIFIC, AMAZING, a flashlight (she knows he has an OBSESSION with flashlights...can't get into the random reason she knows this) a PEZ dispenser, and a SUPERMAN card with a note inside saying:

Odin,
I am SUPER proud of you! Really good job. You're such a BIG BOY now!!! I'll get these to all the little babies who need them. Love, The BABU FAIRY

Is that a wonderful friend OR WHAT???? I'm blown away. She really came through for me. Phew! This whole "relying on others for help" thing is just wonderful! Better than I could have ever imagined. You just put the word out there that you could use some help and voila! The universe sends you the most amazing things! I have a date with a hottie, friends bringing me dinner and good company, party and barbecue invitations, dates for drinks with the girls, someone, I don't even know who, bringing in my recycling can for me, neighbors offering to take my dog for a walk, my babysitter lending me her designer clothes, so many great things! I should have asked for help a long time ago! Here's to growing up!!!!! Hope the BABU FAIRY is just as good to all of you as she's been to this household ;)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

1. Sorry if this is a repeat...I think my last post got lost.
2. I love all the optimism in your recent posts. You're amazing!
3. When we were little, my parents told us that Santa took away the pacifiers. So, we each left them out on Christmas Eve with the milk and cookies and it worked like a charm. Some bizarre kid logic makes these things possible!