"Binki"

Both of my girls took a binki from birth (aka: pacifier, pipe, plug, life saver). And funny how it seems, as they get older they only grow more attached. Of course, Kyra has long outgrown hers (although she occasionally grabs Katie's and pretends to suck on it as if she were the baby). However, with Katie, we have to make sure that the binki is always within arms reach. As of late she has been pretty good without it, only needing it for sleeping time, but she still has her moments (she just cut her last 4 teeth in the past month -duh, that's why she was a "little" cranky).

Anyway, it seems like we have gone through at least two dozen binki's since her birth. I try to keep one in her bed, one in the car, and one in the diaper bag. My only problem is that I forget to put them back in their correct spot if I have taken out a safety net binki. And seeing as how, she loves to chuck them and lose them as much as she loves to put them in her mouth - I go through quit a few. So, this morning, only having two left, I made sure to keep a close eye on them. Only that plan didn't work so well. The first one got lost at church while she was in nursery (apparently they needed to take it out of the diaper bag). That's okay, I still had one left. I made sure to leave it in her crib, only Daddy got her up from her nap and forgot to take it out (I've got to blame it on someone!). Needless to say, she played outside for awhile, we forgot that she had it, I put her down to sleep, and realized I was missing the most powerful sleep aide! Where was that binki?

Figuring she might go to sleep without it, I read her a story, layed her down, said goodnight, and turned off the light. Not 1 second later, she started crying - screaming "BEEKEE". I turned the light back on, only to see these big blue eyes water up, with her lower lip quiver. Oh, my heart just about fell. I told her I'd be right back, and out the door I went. Yes, I took my flashlight, and went outside to search for the secret weapon. I tried retracing her steps from the tractor, to the weeds in the woods, to the tee ball set, to the rose bush, and finally to the gravel turn around and found the bright orange binki. Yes, I now remembered she must have dropped it there when she saw Rudy (our dog) eat an overripe tomato, and want it for herself. Phew!

I ran to her room, where she was still whimpering, and gave her the binki. She quickly grabbed it, shoved it in her mouth, and dropped like a rock to her side. Ahh, my work was done. And wouldn't you know, I checked on her 2 minutes later, only to find her sound asleep, WITHOUT her binki in her mouth!