ELMO

Over the last few weeks we have noticed Henry's increasing interest in Elmo. I'm not sure why toddlers fall in love with this character, but it definitely has some super natural powers. Let me back up, Henry has been extremely attached to his precious pacifier (aka paa). Each day he looked forward to reuniting with his paa during nap and bedtime. Some days he had a hard time parting with his favorite thing on earth, but the paa always stayed in the crib. Our goal was for the paa to be gone by 18 months and as we quickly approach that milestone, we decided to take the plunge and start the torture of sleeping without the paa. I pictured days, even weeks of crying and no sleeping, but thanks to Elmo our reality is a much different story. As I write this, I'm thinking for most people this is not a very thrilling post, but I'm just in such amazement. And for those of you who are ready to get rid of the pacifier, this might be helpful.
First, Henry was given a small Elmo plush toy/doll. He didn't show much interest in it until just recently. I think a big factor in his new love is Todd's nearly perfect impersonation of Elmo. Over several nights, Henry and Todd would play with Elmo and their fun sessions would always ended in the best belly laughs by all. Next, Henry and I would pretend to put Elmo to sleep by rocking him, covering him with a blanket, and giving him hugs and kisses. Yesterday, Henry brought Elmo upstairs and even put him in his crib. When I saw that I knew it the perfect time to switch the paa for Elmo.
Last night instead of Todd reading Henry good night books, Elmo did the reading. Then we asked Elmo if he wanted to sleep with Henry. Of course, he signed "yes" and then we asked Henry if he wanted Elmo to sleep with him. As we held our breath and hoped for the answer we were looking for Henry signed "yes"!
We waited and waited for the screams, but all we heard was silence! As I went to bed I was ready to be woken up in the middle of the night, but again nothing! So we made it through the night, but the next obstacle was nap. I'm so incredibly happy to report that right now Henry is sleeping (with Elmo and without his paa). Elmo (not sounding as great as when daddy does his voice) read books to Henry before his nap.

Now my only hope is that Elmo's magic can continue and Henry will soon forget about his first true love.