Monday, November 30, 2009

Day 83: Clap your hands!

In Peter Pan, Tinker Bell saves Peter's life, and in the process becomes gravely injured.  She asks everyone to clap their hands if they believe in fairies.  Well, in our house, we most certainly would clap our hands!  WE believe!

We have the usual toothfairy that arrives (OK--she has only visited once, but she was a hit), the House Fairy visits our house occasionally, and this past week we added a new and welcomed addition to our fairy collection:  Bernice, the Binky Fairy.

Although Julia never used a binky, Adam loved his.  To be fair, we had pretty much weaned him off of them for the past year and a half.  He didn't use them at night anymore, and they were kept up out of the way unless it was time for a daytime nap.  But the last week or so he has managed to find them hanging around, climbing onto things to reach them, and has screamed blue murder should we take it away.  It was a battle that I really didn't want to get into at his age.  I was never going to be one of those people with the big kid in Walmart with the binky.  No way.

Enter Bernice.  Bernice is a grandmotherly looking fairy who has a strange fondness for collecting binkies. Some childhood throwback that perhaps requires a bit of psychoanalysis. But anyway, her odd obsession came in handy this week. We set up the whole fairy thing.  We decorated an envelope and gathered up the three binkies we could find--including one that was inexplicably in use.  Adam put them in the envelope.  We told him that when little boys get to be big boys, Bernice likes to make a fun trade and give them something special for their binkies.  We sealed the envelope up, and Adam put the envelope in the mailbox. 

The next morning he found that Bernice had left a big, stickered up envelope full of forest animals and cowboys. Whoohee!!  So exciting.  About two hours later, he had a bit of a meltdown over not having a binky, but another explanation, a threatening to his sister that the B-word was like a swear word in our house and would have consequences to dire to contemplate,  and we haven't heard a peep about it since.
Oh yes, our hands are clapping so hard they are tingling. 
We DO believe in the magic of fairies!

Bless Bernice!

By the way, there's a lovely little Christmas give away going on here.  I don't know about you, but a $50 gift card towards Christmas cards fromTiny Prints sounds pretty good to me!

6 comments:

passions and soapboxes said...

My hands are clapping too, both for fairies and for the brilliant idea of Bernice. :D

julochka said...

both here and denmark and in ireland i've seen binky trees, where people must go ceremoniously hang the binky on a little ribbon in the tree and soon the trees are festooned in binkies. but the binky fairy is a good idea too.

Maureen@IslandRoar said...

What a great idea! I wish I'd known you for this idea when my 22 year old son needed to give up his pacifier at 4 (only at night by then, but still). We did an elaborate wrapping it up job (don't ask!), but the fairy is an incredible idea. And I love the hand photos.
I always clap at that part. I DO believe in fairies!

Anonymous said...

My six yr old held onto his binky for much too long, as well. Sure with I had read this post when we were struggling with helping him to give it up! You're a genius!

Anonymous said...

'Single hand clapping, doesn't make a sound.'

What a wonderful feeling to discover, reading your tonights post.

christina said...

Oh I am clapping! I believe! ; )