"When I'm Three... No More Nonnies!"

Neal and I had thought pretty hard about how we were going to break Austin of his nonnie dependence.

Again, I have no idea how or when he started calling his pacifiers "nonnies" but somewhere along the way..

We played with the idea of taking them from him several times from the time he was a year old. He slept so well and used them to sleep that I really didn't feel like rocking the boat.

So when he was 18 months old we started being conscious of when he had it during the day and weaned him off that. He got it in the car and to sleep only.

We decided to fully take it away from him when he was 3. I had mine until I was 3 and I don't feel like it damaged me in anyway.. at least I think. So we started talking to him about how he had to give up his nonnies when he turned 3.

A few months before he was 3 we started to wean him off needing it in the car. We just "forgot" to have one in the car one day.

He asked about it A LOT and cried about it a few times, but then would flip his switch and suddenly declare, "When I'm 3... no more nonnies! But I'm two. So I can have nonnies. But when I'm three, no more nonnies!"

So he seemed to get the concept.. but if he'd actually be ok with it, we could only hope.

I had heard about kids putting special treasures into Build-a-Bears and thought that might be a good solution for us, since Austin liked to sleep with his nonnies.... in particular, sleep while holding them in his hands.

So last week we went to the mall and he got to pick out any animal he wanted to build and store his special treasure.

The whole process was cuter than I expected. He got to name his animal (he picked a giraffe and named it Clifford) and push the pedal to help fill him with fluff.

Putting his very special cargo into Clifford for safe keeping.

Then he got to pick out a little fabric heart to put inside too, to signify love.. awwwww...

Then Clifford needed a bath! Because being born is messy! Really it was just air that came out, but it had another pedal he got to operate so Clifford got a long bath.

I helped to see if we could speed up the process...The pedal was just too much fun.

Then we got to make a birth certificate for Clifford and officially bring him home as one of our own.. He seemed pretty happy with his new friend.

Then of course we had to go on the Merry-Go-Round! It wouldn't be a mall visit without a good ol' spin!

So far he is doing good without his nonnies.. he still asks about them in the car but I remind him that he's 3 and he doesn't need his nonnies and that they are safe inside Clifford. So far so good...

Now we just need to get him potty trained and he'll be all set as an official Big Boy!