The Ba-Ba

Since I was too busy posting photos of the lush green hills of the farm, I forgot to mention a wee little bit of info that also happened on our vacation last month. We got Rowan to give up the Ba Ba. You know the Ba Ba. You might call it a "binkie" "passy" "nuk-nuk" "goo-gee" whatever it is you call the plastic thing you stick in your child's mouth to make them stop making that yammering noise. Love it or hate it, the Ba Ba/ Binkie/What-have-you  is an integral part of baby-hood for a lot of us ( if you hate it, just hush, we're still working through some yammering over here so give us a break) Anyway, while we were out of town, we told Rowan we forgot to pack any Ba Ba. It was... shall we say: a wee bit rough there at first. He might have scared off some coyotes that first Ba Ba-less naptime.

It's ok. I used to be like you. I'd roll my eyes if I saw any child over the age of six months with one of these ridiculous things in their mouths. I never had to deal with it with Hopper because he just simply rejected the idea before he even left the hospital. Then,  I gave birth to a child that would wail for four straight hours unless you handed him one of these molded piece of plastic.  Caregivers have called me out of work meetings in a panic when the Ba Ba came up missing.  Trips to the store at 2:00am have been made to procure a Ba Ba.  good god. That kid do love a Ba Ba. It was his comfort, his buddy, his "ok, I'll go to sleep as long as I have this, I GUESS," so this giving it up was tough. It was definitely time for it to happen, but that doesn't make it any easier. He did not understand the lack of Ba Ba. He was.. displeased. He also started biting his own hand, HARD.  (Yeah, that's a new one on me.)

  It's been exactly a month and he STILL, every single day, asks me for a Ba Ba. Every day I say no. Every day he gets a little less sad, but he still asks the very next day. He has developed a callus on the back of his hand by now.  I have visions of this child asking for a Ba Ba on his way out the door for college.  But we will prevail in this Ba Ba-less world. We will prevail.