A Long Awaited Day

Sorry it's so yellow, it's just a REALLY genuinely excited smile!

A few months back, I introduced the idea to Aftyn that binkies could be used as money

to go and buy toys at the store! How exciting, hmm? 

We talked about it a few more times that first week that I brought it up, but I don't think Aftyn or I really felt like it was time yet to take her precious binkies to the store.  

There was no TOY that could take the place of a binky. Yet.

Enter: Toy Story 2.  

Aftyn watched it for the first time a few months ago, more or less.  Almost instant love. 

She liked Woody, and Jessie and Ham and Rex.  

I got a really cool T-Rex at a garage sale that she has really enjoyed.  

So, the other night, after re-introducing the idea of putting her binkies in a ziploc and buying some toys with them, well, I pepped her up with a re-showing of Toy Story 2, in the middle of which I said, "Let's go to the store and buy a Woody toy, a Jessie toy and a Buzz Lightyear toy!" to which she replied, "okay Mommy!" . 

So we finished the movie and off we went to Walmart to find her toys, with a ziploc baggie full of her 4 binkies clutched tightly in her hand.

She was SO excited! We have never gone to the store and just bought her new toys.  Not sure if we ever will again, so to just pick up and go buy toys with her was a new and exciting event!

We quickly found the Toy Story toys, thankfully, and then decided which ones were the ones she REALLY wanted to buy with her binkies. 

With a Jessie, Ham, Woody and little green martian man in our cart, and a bag of candy that mommy " needed", we found just the right cashier for our transaction.

A very sweet elderly woman who had checked us out several times. 

I hurriedly explained, as I laid the toys by her register, that my daughter would be buying HER toys with her binkies, 

*wink wink* 

and that then I would be buying my candy.  

So she rang us up, and after I asked her how much it came to, I told Aftyn, "okay, you have to pay for your toys!", so Aftyn handed her baggie of binkies over all by herself with only a second of hesitation and then I stepped up with the money to pay for the rest.  :)

The cashier was really helpful with this whole ploy because she brought Aftyn's bag of toys right over to her and told her "okay, here are the toys you bought!".  

Aftyn had a grin from ear to ear!!

Even getting out to the car, we couldn't get there fast enough to open up Jessie's box so Aftyn could hold her and play with her on the drive home. 

These are the pictures we took once we got home.  

Seriously, ear to ear grin. 

I've never seen Aftyn SO excited about anything.

I call this one, nervous excitement.  What did I just do? I traded my binkies for toys?

We literally got home from the store and put Aftyn right to bed.  

For the first hour, we heard nothing from her room.  

After about an hour, I went in because I was hearing noises.  

She was crying.  :(  

And then she started sobbing to me that she wanted her binky.  oh man.  

I laid down with her, and a little while later, she was asleep.

The next morning, nothing but excitement about her toys, and one little mention of a binky when she told me she was a little tired, but I quickly changed the subject with breakfast. 

Last night went swimmingly.  

With no afternoon nap for Aftyn, at bedtime I turned on her bedtime lullabies that I got from my sister in law at Aftyn's baby shower and in about 10 minutes she was  sleeping.  :)  

She seems to be doing really well, and I'm excited that she's coping so well with this change. 

I'm so proud of her, and maybe a little sad that she's growing up so quickly.  

Potty trained and no more binkies.  

She's officially a big little girl.