No more taba!

 Big milestone earlier this month -- this little boy learned to sleep without his taba! 
I'm still feeling a little (ok maybe a lot) nostalgic about this.

We've known for awhile we needed to do it, and one day recently Alden said (for the first time ever) that he might be ready to try sleeping without it. He changed his mind at bedtime, but the next night we providentially had dinner with friends who were getting ready to have their 4.5 year old say goodbye to her pacifier.  I grilled my friend on her strategy, and realized that the upcoming week was the perfect time - no big events, before we left for vacation, and well before the new school year started. 

A couple days later, Alden and I sat on the beach at Storrs Pond after the CRC baptism/picnic day and talked about it.  

He decided he was ready, so I called Alasdair at home and told him to hide all the tabas. We stopped on the way home to pick out a new stuffed animal to sleep with and a prize to wake up to the next day.  That night was really rough, lots of tears and anger, demanding it back, but he fell asleep and slept all night.  The next morning he woke up sobbing for it, which broke my heart.  Since we'd decided almost on a whim to try sleeping without it, I felt really sad that he'd never had his "last" night with his taba, and like maybe we'd pushed him into it.  But having made it through the first night I didn't want to go back.

During the day he did ask for it a few times, but he continued to say he wanted to be brave, to be a big boy, and keep learning to sleep without it.  At bedtime that night, he was a wreck again, so we sat in my room and talked about all the reasons it was time to stop using it.  That had little effect, so I went back to bribery, and let him choose a prizes for each day that week that he went to sleep without taba and later without crying.   We got my computer and ordered his requested Ky Loren (sp?) costume and light saber.  He also wanted to have donuts with Ethan, so brought munchkins the pool one day.  It seemed to really help him each night to have something to 'earn' the next day.  I also let him fall asleep listening to an audio book, which seemed to help keep him distracted.  After a couple nights without it, he stopped asking for it at all during the day (a big change!) and didn't ask much at night either.

When we first got to the lake, he asked hopefully if we'd brought any tabas....but that was a week ago and I think the last time he's asked.  I still feel a little sad about this last vestige of babyhood 😢, but I know we needed to let it go, and I'm proud of my big boy!