Greetings,
You may have read me philosophising the other day on the subject on my son’s dummy (dodie/pacifier/paci/soother/nuk/noing/binkie. And I actually don’t know why we call it a dummy in Aussie Land, remind me to consult with the Google God. Edit– Google God knows nothing. Anyone else?).
Well, the magical, mystical dummy fairy visited the Purple House that very afternoon. She invisibly deposited one super cool kid’s tool set, complete with the obligatory hammer, pliers and …erm… angle grinder; and three Kinder Surprise eggs (nicely done Man, that’s lateral thinking for you!) to the kitchen table.
The Chop was ecstatic. Tools are his thing. As you can see, he uses them to fix his car.
So, while Chop was getting his grease monkey vibes going on, the Dummy Fairy floated up the stairs to the Chop’s room and removed every single last dummy. Eight of them in all. Huzzah!
Later that night…..
“Dodie! Want dodie! Need dodie!”
“No, the dummy fairy took it, remember? She bought you tools.”
20 minutes later, I creep back up the stairs. the child is curled up, snug in his bed, surrounded by plastic tools and bolts. He is wearing the safety goggles that came with the tool kit. (No, I didn’t get a photo of that, more’s the pity. I was creeping, remember? A camera flash may have given the game away..)
I creep back downstairs. Victorious. Congratulating myself, slapping myself on the back to ring out my good fortune. I even joyfully announce on FaceBook that Operation Dummy Drop has been a total success.
And that’s when I hear laughter. Victorious, joyful laughter. Coming from the direction of my lovely little Chop’s room.
I creep apprehensively up the stairs. Only to be met by the Chop, is his doorway, dummy in his outstretched hand.
“Dodie!!”
As it turns out, our Dummy Fairy is in roughly the same caliber as our cleaning fairy. Useless. She forgot to do a thorough inspection the Chop’s entire room. And missed a dummy, tucked away in the back of a Little Tykes semi trailer.
I’ll admit, I was a little bit… relieved. I’ve never had a problem with his dummy. And it is just the last little part of him left that still the tiny baby that used to fit in the crook of my arm. (Apart from, ya know, the toilet training, but I’m not quite so sentimental about that).
So, it’s back to square one. At least we’ve reduced the dummy-load from nine to just one. I have the other eight furtively tucked away in our Harry Potter cupboard (that’s the one under the stairs). I can’t bring myself to throw them away, just in case of an emergency. Like the last dummy standing going AWOL. Yep, I’m a coward like that.
Whatever. The dummy fairy will be making another appearance in the Purple House very, very soon, armed with tooth rot and cheap, singing, whirring plastic stuff, to take the last of the dodies to a little baby who needs it. Because the Chop is a big boy now. Right….?
We’ll see. I’m hoping the agency sends us a more competent fairy this time. Kinda. They really better get a handle of their quality of staffing soon, or imagine what our tooth fairy is going to be like.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh boy..doesn't it figure one was missing. lol All three of mine were thumb suckers (the 4yr old still is)…not so easy to take away.
It took us a few goes to get the dummy to stay gone. We tried giving it to a friends new baby, fail.
We talked about the fairies, and our daughter said yes, she would give them to the fairy… and she did, she dropped one out the window, "here are fairies! I a big girl now…" She gave it to the beach fairy, the mountain fairy, the rainbow fairy… I went to the GP and she very rationally said 'You don't see any uni students walking around with dummies… she'll grow out of it."
I was worried, I was sick of the comments from strangers… but slowly, over time, she gave it up… in the end she put it in the freezer (her own idea). I told her it was there if she needed it, but it would be very cold!
I kept it in there for months, just in case. But it never came out again. I guess in the end, the gentle nudges from us helped her make the decision herself.
Try not to stress too much, he'll get rid of it when he's ready.
Zander got rid of his just after Juliette was born, at almost 3.5 years old. That said it was only ever for bedtime, he had to leave it in bed during the day.
I told him we would go to the shops & buy a present if he didn't have it for three days. The first night was fine until about midnight when he started crying, he didn't know why but kept telling me he couldn't get to sleep. I caved!
The next day he asked for his present & I explained three days & he promptly picked up his dummy & threw it in the bin & asked "present now?" and that was it, no more dummy.
He'll get rid of it when he's ready, don't stress.
I'm smiling at this post. I can remember throwing mine in the fire & my mother saying 'I'm not buying you another one!' I coped *takes thumb out of mouth*!
Awwww clever little munchkin (your boy, not that slack fairy). I only just last week threw out the two dummies I had stashed A YEAR AGO… just in case. It thankfully never eventuated.
My oldest wasn't too happy to give up her "binkie" either. Just when I thought I had her off it, along came her brother and she started stealing his. Luckily, her stealing his led to him never becoming attached, so I only had to take it away from one of the two kids.
What a tricky little trickster! And dont you simultaneously love and hate that little " ha ha, i beat you! " laugh ? Its too cute but then…they've beat you.
Chop – 1
Mummy/Dummy Fairy – 0
So cute! I bet he was so excited to find his Dodie!
I left a comment on your link you gave me for your first post! Thanks! My son wouldn't take a dummy – even though we seriously wanted him to. Thought it could stop his crying, but no, he just wanted to cry.
Too funny! I think he knew it was there all along. He probably hid it from the dummy fairy!
Ha! He outsmarted all of you!
I hope the second fairy comes with a guarantee!
Oh so close! I'll be tuning back in to see how the second fairy goes; we'll be looking to use their services soon.
Stoopid fairies! Why can't they be all uber clever like Tink and her posse.; )
Oh you better watch that tooth fairy, she'll be leaving teeth and taking money!
Haha I facebooked about this last week too! I have a 20 mnth old who seems to be getting very attached to the dummy. I also bailed on Operation Bye Bye Dummy after 1 night.
Its now ONLY for nap and sleep times.
Good luck, if you find some magical way of making them forget we ever stuck one in their gob pleaseeee send it my way ; )
Dummy – ie shop dummy = fake person = dummy = fake nipple? Dunno?
I still don't think the dummy is a bad thing; it's a comfort to the little one, and when they no longer need it, they'll get rid of it on their own. I have yet to hear of one kid who took his to college with him! lol
Haha, I made my 2YO (now 4YO) throw his in the garbage bin as the garbage truck was coming up the road…he watched as the truck tipped them up and took them away…replaced with small Thomas Tank trains he took to bed instead. He was pretty upset for a few days..harsh Mummy. Couldn't care less with the second kid. Poor 1st child was test case.