Operation Bye-Bye BaBa - Part III

And now, the conclusion of Update on Operation Bye-Bye BaBa.

So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were hard on Bean.  And I’ll admit, they were hard on me, too.

Friday morning when Bean and I were getting ready to go to Giggles’ house, I told Bean to grab a toy or doll, whatever she wanted to take with her to her nannies that day.  She started into the living room and then turned back to me and said, “But no BaBas.”

I stopped in my tracks and looked at her.  Her little face.  Those sweet, sweet eyes looking at me. 

I said to her, “No, honey, no BaBas.”

She said, “Cause I a big girl.”

THUD.  My heart fell out on the floor right there.  I stepped over it and grabbed her up in my arms.  I kissed her little face all over and hugged her close to me.  I sat on the couch holding her and just bawled my eyes out.

I said, “That’s right, baby.  You are a big girl now and you don’t need any BaBas.  You need to start drinking out of a cuppie like other big girls.”  I told her how big she was getting and that even though Mommy thinks of her as an itty, bitty baby, she isn’t really.  She is growing and learning so much.  I told her how proud we were of her and how much Mommy and Daddy loved her.  I told her I knew it was hard for her to learn to be without her BaBa and that she hadn’t done anything wrong, she just needed to move onto big girl cuppies. 

I went on and on and on.  She just looked up at me and giggled.  I cried because both she and I had realized that she isn’t a baby any more.  She realized it was time to do some big girl things and I realized it was time I let her. 

She still asks for a BaBa at night but there is no crying any more, hers or mine.  When we tell her no, she might pout or ask a couple more times but then she lets it go. 

Did we do the right thing?  Yeah, I think so.

Did it break my heart to do it?  Most definitely.  But I know that this is just the beginning to many hard parenting decisions we are going to have to make for Bean if we’re lucky. 

Now I guess we have to start working on Operation Hello Potty.  Ugh.