Operation Bye-Bye Ba-Ba.

Okay, I'll confess.  I'm a horrible mom and I should be fined or something.  Why?  Well, Bean is 22 months old and still addicted to her bottle, a/k/a her "Ba-Ba".  Bottles!  Bottles!  Bottles!  I am so sick of washing these danged bottles. 

Bean doesn't just drink out of her Ba-Bas.  They are her security item, her best friend.  She can't go to sleep without one.  She doesn't even seem to be able to go a day without one.  She will beg for one and when I cave in and give her one, she'll pop it into her mouth and walk away as happy as a clam.  She'll just walk around with it dangling out of her mouth.  No drinking, just companionship.

Why couldn't it have been a stuffed animal?  A soft, sweet blanket?  Even a pacifier?  Pacifiers are more acceptable for little kids to hang onto.  I know I get looks when we go out in public and other moms see Bean using a bottle.  I know what y'all are thinking.  I can read it on your face.  "Bad mom!  Bad mom!  Bad mom!"  Blah, blah, blah-da-di blah!  Listen, she's my kid.  I'll ruin her if I want to.

When she starts begging and whining and crying and...driving me crazy for a Ba-Ba, I can usually stand my ground for about 2 minutes and then, well, then I just think "she's so little, she needs her friend".  And over to the cabinet I go to get a clean Ba-Ba and put a smile back on my child's face.  Evidently, when I gave birth to her, they removed my spine cause I have no backbone when it comes to this fight.

But I came up with a wonderful, amazing, completely uber-fantastic plan on getting my child away from the horrible, evil Ba-Ba!  I've been telling her all weekend that if she wants Santa to leave her any presents at Christmas then she has to give him all her Ba-Bas.  Isn't it great that I can make Santa the bad guy?  Thanks, Santa!

Now I realized yesterday that Bean probably still has no idea who Santa is, what presents are, or what a Christmas is.  So that might be the fatal flaw in my plan.  It might all fall through.  But I figure I have a month and a half almost now to hype it all up and get her ready for the turnover. 

Please pray that this works.  Please pray cause frankly, I'm tired of getting those looks from y'all.