being three

Last week I decided it was high time George said goodbye to his beloved beps and that I had the will power to help him do it. The whole "only at bedtime" thing really wasn't working and George was constantly begging/crying for one or two or three beps to be given to him. I realized that moderation just isn't George's thing (I wonder who he gets that from) and that he needed to go off his beps cold turkey. I began by telling George about this really awesome batman toy that I thought he would like and we spent some time looking at it on the computer. Then we talked about how he is getting so big and is probably too old for a beps. We made a chart that required him to give all of his beps to Charlie and to practice sleeping three times without a beps in order to earn his awesome batman toy. To my total surprise George was game, did amazing, and earned his toy. In fact, he hasn't touched a beps in five days, hasn't tried to steal one from Charlie, and has only asked me for one a couple of times. He has a much harder time falling asleep without his beps but each day is getting a little better.

Yesterday morning he woke up crying and told me that he didn't want to be three anymore and that he just wanted to be two and have a beps. It broke my heart because I know he is trying really hard to be big and keep his end of our bargain and because I am a total softy. Lucky for me George is easy to distract so I made waffles for breakfast and told him that when you are three years old you get to pour your own syrup which made being three fun again. Today we talked a lot about things that three year-olds get to do but that one and two year-olds are just too little to do. Things like use the t.v. remote, go to school, go to Little Gym, ride a big wheel, put their plate in the sink, watch a show before bed, and the list goes on. I am really proud of George and how well he has done with this new challenge.