Devouring Books

For months this book has remained in Oliver's crib. He loves to push the little button on the cover that plays a song, "Mommy loves Elmo" (aka Frere Jaques). Many mornings that twangy, computerized tune alerts us to the fact that Oli is awake. A few days ago I went in to find bits of saliva-soggied book binding littering his bedding. He's been eating his book. Mmmmm.

Note what you DON'T see in his crib: binkies. We went cold turkey on September 24th. We used to leave 2 or 3 binkies in his crib--only using them at bedtime. But he got into the habbit of chucking them onto the floor after we put him to bed and then wailing in despair because he couldn't reach them, until we would tip-toe back in and pop one in his mouth. For the last week of binky life it had become a game. He was winning. As much as I love a binky face, I decided to end it. He only cried for about five minutes the first night without a pacifier. As usual, he just soldiers on. He has helped himself to X's binky once or twice in the last 10 days. But they're usually in X's bed, and thus not a temptation.