What's Your Name?

For the past 6 months or so, Alexandra has self-proclaimed herself to be called "baby."  I'm not really sure how this came about, but if I would call her name or something other than baby (such as young lady or miss priss), she would adamantly state, "No! I baby!"  Whenever anyone would ask her what her name was, she would reply, "Baby."  I, of course, thought it was adorable, so I thought I would  encourage her along to say that she was "Mommy's Baby."  So whenever someone asked her, "Who's baby are you?"  Without fail, she would say, "Mommy's Baby!"  I loved it!

I have been extremely hesitant of taking Alexandra's pappy (pacifier) away from her.  I took Aubrey's away at about 19 months or so (before Anna was to be born) and I took Anna's away at 24 months.  I was anxious taking it away from all of them, but even more so Alexandra.  She was extremely fond of her pappy and she slept so well with it.  For naps and at night, all you had to do was lay her down in her crib, she would roll over and go to sleep.   This was like angels singing!!  Heavenly!!!

Since she is now two and a half, I thought I should really consider taking it away.  I was letting her have it mostly because it made life easier and I was dreading the long nights of her trying to get herself to sleep without it.

I spoke to her about giving her pappy to Santa Claus when he came to see us.  At frist she was on board with this, but then Aubrey piped up and said that wasn't a good idea.  Aubrey said that if she didn't have her pappy, then she would cry at night and keep her (Aubrey) awake.  Yes, we need to work on not being so self-centered in our house!

Christmas came and went and we did not leave her pappy out for Santa.  New Year's came and went and we did not take away her pappy (although I did cut, i.e. "break") all of them but one.  So a few days after the new year, I bit the bullet and snipped the one pappy that wasn't "broken."  She was not happy when she found at nap time that her pappy was broken.  She cried the entire nap and never went to sleep.  Oh, boy!  I was thinking that this was not going to be fun.

That night, I gave her a little melatonin to help her get to sleep and she went right down without any problems.  We haven't physically taken the pappy away, but with it being broken, she no longer can get a suction on it, so she just chews on it a little bit just to have it in her mouth.

The next day at naptime, she went right to sleep!  It was incredible.  I couldn't believe it!  It was too good to be true.  That night, she went right to sleep (without the aid of the miracle of melatonin...that's for another post)!

So, this morning when she woke up, she came and snuggled up to me in the bed.  As I was talking to her, she had her blue headband on (yes, I think she slept with it on) and declared she was Cinderella.  I said, "Oh, your name is Cinderella, now?"

"No, my name Alexandra."  What???  I had to get her to say it twice because I couldn't believe it.  I also had to decipher what she was saying because Alexandra is not an easy name for a two-year-old to say.   We jumped up and went and told daddy what her name was!!!

To make it more of a milestone morning, she later went and got her pappy out of her crib and said she was throwing it in the trash.  I was a little more hesitant of this right of passage than she, but she was confident, so she did it!  We all cheered and clapped for her, which she ate up!

I love that she's had these two great milestones, but it's reminding me that my littlest girl is growing up and I really don't have a baby anymore.  :(

And just because I don't think a post is complete without a picture, 

here's one of me and my littlest angel on New Year's eve.