Binkie Quest 2009

Before I had Caleb I swore I'd never give my kids a pacifier. Ever. No need to plug up those sweet little mouths, no mute button for me! That all changed when Caleb was 2 days old. I held out for a long time, eh? I told everyone that he was a "sucky" baby and needed something to suck on to self soothe. His options were the binkie or me (ouch). Binkie it was then! In our defense, he's only a bedtime binkie addict. He very rarely needs one while he's awake - only when he's super loud or super pissed and I really do want to plug him up. We had originally agreed to pull the plug at 6m but Dr Ramirez said it was fine to keep the binkie longer and so I lobbied strongly to Juan for us to keep it until 12m. And so he's still a binkie baby.



He's a smart cookie. If he's not in the mood to nap he simply stands up in the crib and throws binkie over the side. And then proceeds to scream until someone comes in the room and gives binkie back to him. Cute, huh? I've also made it a habit to check on him before I go to bed and make sure binkie is right in front of his face so that if he wakes during the night he'll see it and not cry for one of us to come and find it for him. It's a cop-out, I know - but we all sleep through the night and unless one of you wants to come and find it for him at 4am then we're going to leave well enough alone.

Until March. When binkie really does need to go bye-bye. I've started researching about some binkie rehab programs - cut slit in binkie so it isn't suckable, replace binkie with a stuffed animal, give bikie to another baby etc. Hmm.

Technically we own 11 binkies. That's quite a few for one little mouth. But the problem remains that no matter how many we have, you can only find one or two at any given time. And thus Binkie Quest was born.

The inaugural Binkie Quest was held last summer. At the time we owned five binkies and couldn't find any of them. I offered $1 for every recovered binkie and my husband quickly set off to work! He found all of them and I never paid up. (Add it to my tab dear!)

We've had to hold Binkie Quest a few more times since then. Those tricky binkies hide in some crazy places! My purse, the diaper bag, strollers, under couches, behind the crib and so on.

Of the eleven I know I've seen at least five in the last month or so.

As of this morning two are at school, one in the crib, two dirty by the sink. The other six? No clue. But I'm paying $1 for every one you can find...