Build A Bear

Before Baby Number Two Bucket List

• Go blueberry picking.
• Go to a drive in movie. 
• Have a picnic.
• Take a weekend vacation trip. More on that here.
• Do a bowling night.
• Go to build-a-bear for the first time. 
• Let Logan decorate his own apron for helping out in the kitchen.
• Take/ have some updated family pictures done.
• Go to meet-a-character night at cowabungas.
• Go camping.  More on that here.
• Take a train ride into Boston. 
• Start a pizza and board games night for our family once a month.
• Take Logan to a theme or water park. More on that here.
• Go to the zoo or a petting farm.
• Go apple picking.

I have been planning a trip to build-a-bear for months now, and it just hadn't happened yet. Recently, we had a free Saturday and decided to cross it off our bucket list. I thought it would be so fun to let Logan build his own bear, and knew he would love it. I did have a little motive behind it all though. When Logan turned two, we had made his beloved binky a bedtime and car ride only thing. When he turned three, we planned to get rid of them all together. So since his birthday, he knew that the day was coming that he would go make a cuddly pal to replace the binky he has loved since he was born.

I have heard so many apologies or excuses over things like this, from parents that feel ashamed that their toddlers still have comfort items like a binky or bottle at night. To be honest, there are definitely some things I would change about our parenting over the past few years (mostly days I have been short on patience), but this is not one of them. We did what worked for our family. It gave me so many quiet hours or extra naps that I needed... especially toward the beginning of this pregnancy (he hasn't napped once in the weeks since we got rid of them).

Overall, this plan worked out so well for Logan. We told him the ride to the mall would be his last one with his binky. We took it at the end of the ride, and he was excited to go in and find darth vader waiting for him. The first night he cried for about 30 seconds at bedtime, the second night he said he missed it, and by the third night he went to bed without even mentioning it. I am so proud of how well he did with the transition.

He thought it was so cool that he got to pick out a heart for darth when they stuffed him.  

He spent a good 15 minutes bathing and scrubbing him. :)

I snapped a quick "before" and "after" picture of him.

Of course, I forgot the actual camera so these photos aren't the best quality, but they work to document this stage in his life being over. I may have taken the whole thing harder than he did. ;) It is weird not to see him with a binky when I check on him before bed at night. I couldn't have hoped for a smoother transition. And when the pregnancy hormones aren't talking, I am happy to be moving on to new stages with him. He has grown up so much lately, and I know that growth is only going to seem more glaring when we meet his baby brother.