I’m absolutely pooping my pants at the thought of taking away Bella’s ‘Mimi’ (her dummy) for good. She’ll be three next month so I think it’s time to finally ditch the dummy. Her Mimi is strictly for bedtime and car journeys only, but more recently her tantrums and hormonal meltdowns are because I won’t let her have the dummy during the day, she has also started to wake in the night when she can’t find it.
I think I’m partially to blame. I’ve planted the ‘Dummy Fairy’ seed some time ago, but I haven’t actually acted on it, so I’m wondering whether it’s playing on her mind. Like most kids, Bella always reacts better to situations or change if you warm her up first and give her plenty of notice. We just couldn’t decide on a Dummy Fairy present until today when I ordered a Chad Valley 7ft Straight Slide from Argos-eeek!
I brought a lovely Dummy Fairy Kit from Etsy for £8 and it includes everything you need for Operation Dummy Fairy including; A letter from the main fairy herself, a badge, fairy dust, certificate, a pouch to put the dummy in (although Bella has several stashed away so I’m going to need a bigger bag), four reward cards that your child can cash in during the first week without their dummy, a picture of the Dummy Fairy for your child to colour in and a follow up letter from the Dummy Fairy once your child has ditched their dummy.
I thought a bit of fairy magic might settle the blow of losing her mimi. My plan is to put up the fairy door somewhere for Bella to find in a couple of days time and then I’ll put the bag and box by her bedroom door for her to put her Mimi’s in when she feels ready to give them up. When she puts them in the box, she will sprinkle some fairy dust on them (we’ll do this bit in the garden) and we will put them by the fairy door, ready for the Dummy Fairy to collect.
When she wakes up the next morning, I’ll tell her to look out of her bedroom window and she will see her brand, new shiny slide with a balloon attached. I’ll also leave her certificate, reward cards and badge by the fairy door for Bella to find. The reward cards allows your child to trade their card in for a treat after day one, day two, day four and a week. I’ll probably give Bella chocolate buttons, stickers, crafty present and then a talking Po Teletubbie after she has given it up for a week.
I also ordered these stickers from Amazon to give to Bella each morning to show her what a good job she’s doing. Bella is starting her new pre-school this week so I want to give her a couple of days to settle in and then I’ll start the ball rolling on Friday. This is not going to be pretty! Wish me luck.