Marie is almost 4. She has been sleeping with a pacifier (binky) since… well basically since she got home from the hospital. When she turned 3, we thought we had her convinced that she had to give it up, but us softies couldn’t stand the whining about it, and so we gave it back to her.
When she turned 3 1/2, we started whittling off the end of the binky, hoping that the growing hole and shortening chewy part would make her lose interest. She didn’t.
About a month ago, we introduced the concept of the binky fairy. A big girl leaves her binky on the windowsill (so the binky fairy can see it when she flies by in the middle of the night). When the binky fairy comes, she takes the binky and gives it to a new baby (hopefully after some reconditioning) and leaves “a present”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LWQZ1K behind.
Last night, the binky fairy came. What a relief. Fortunately, Brian has never been interested in a binky.