Party Central...Preschool Style

With all the parties that have been going on in our home over the last couple of years, the girls have begun to take ownership of that "role."

Charis decided, at the beginning of the month, that she wanted to have a Princess Tea Party for some of her girlfriends from Sunday School. It didn't take her long to take that from idea-form to set-in-stone planning. And thus, the past few weeks have been a fury of random comments about what they'll be doing at said party.

Here she is, calling up two friends to invite them over. :) The girls on the other end of the phone were so excited that I could literally hear them yelling. You should have heard Charis talking all "grown up". She had no concrete details, but she was making them up as she went like they were the final say. "Yes. It will be next Tuesday. At 11 o'clock. uh-huh."

I'm thinking that listening to the conversations of girls dressed in Princess attire sitting around the Tea Party Table will be hysterical. A bunch of 5 year-olds, dressed to the hilt, thinking they're 20-something. ;)

BUT before we make the invites for that party, we have another one in the works...

This is Selah (at 14 months). I'm not sure why she has her "bubby" in her mouth, as she has only been allowed to use it for nap and bedtimes. Maybe this was before that rule was set in stone?

Bu regardless, I've mentioned before how she has not been interested in giving up her beloved Bubby. We've tried nearly everything. We've tried convincing her it's only for babies. We've tried bribing her with a surprise. We've tried talking with her, appealing to her sense of reason. We've tried giving her pacifiers that have lost their suck.

Nope. Not interested. Didn't work. Move on to something new, Mom.

I had begun to have images of my teenage daughter still needing her pacifier to fall asleep. Until yesterday when I decided to bring up the idea of giving Bubby away one. more. time.

Apparently, this time I offered her something a little more appealing. Because this time I offered her a party.

The promise was "When you no longer use Bubby, you can invite some of your friends over for a party of your very own." And THAT did it.

I mentioned it in the morning. Last night we sent her to bed without Bubby. And she was just fine. Yes, she cried for about 5 minutes. But then, she must have decided that the promise of a party planned by her outweighed the sadness of "ByeBye Bubby." Hallelujah!

And this morning...first thing out of her mouth...she listed off the small group of friends she wanted to invite.

Hopefully, she'll keep that in mind. Come Naptime.