The "Ridey" Fairy

For those of you who might not remember, Samantha calls her pacifier "ridey". She dubbed them that name a long time ago and it stuck. She used to use her ridey all day everyday and then about 6 months ago we started the rule that ridey was only for when she was in her crib at nap time or bed time. We even gave her a special box that she could keep the rideys stored in her room.

Chris is going to be home this next week and starting a new job on the 4th (more on that to come in a later post) so we decided what better time to de-ridey Samantha (here I should note that I thought it was a good time; Chris thought that anytime after the 4th would be ideal!)

So, we started out by reading Samantha this story we created about the Ridey Fairy.

Once upon a time, there were lots of little babies born at the hospital. All of these babies were very sad and cried a lot. Do you know why these babies were sad? They were sad because they needed a ridey to help them to fall asleep. The Ridey Fairy heard the little babies crying, and she said, "I have to find some children who are big girls and boys and do not need their rideys anymore. Maybe these big kids will help me by giving their rideys to the babies."

The next day, the Ridey Fairy got a letter in the mail from a big girl named Sally. Sally said, "please come take my rideys and give them to all the new babies that need them to sleep at night and to feel safe." That night, Sally put all of her rideys into a box, and left them by the front door for the ridey fairy to take to all the babies who needed rideys. After Sally went to sleep, the Ridey Fairy came and took the rideys and left a brand new toy for Sally, because Sally had been such a big girl and helped the new babies.

After reading this story, Samantha actually initiated saying that the fairy could give her rideys to the new babies. We asked her if she would like to send a letter to the fairy to have her come pick up the rideys. I got the idea to send the fairy a letter from this site. We've never actually read this book, but just used the letter they provide. So, today we put this letter in the mailbox for the Ridey Fairy:

We went out for the afternoon, and when we got back we looked in the mailbox to see if the Fairy had taken Samantha's letter. The first thing Samantha said when she saw the empty mailbox was "the Fairy forgot to leave me a toy!" So, we had to go over with her that the Fairy would bring her a toy after Samantha left the rideys for her to take. After bath time we gathered all of her rideys and put them in a box and set them next to the front door. All was well and good and at bedtime Samantha went about her regular routine and sat with us to read some books before getting in her crib. There were a few lip quivering moments when she was asking for her ridey, but we were able to distract her enough and she laid down in her crib with no protests. We reminded her that in the morning she could look to see if the Ridey Fairy had left her a toy. We were just about out of her room when she said, "the fairy will bring me a toy and bring my rideys back too from the babies." Oooh...so close we were. "No, remember? We put all of your rideys in a box and the fairy will come get them to take to the babies. She is not going to bring the rideys back, but she will bring you a toy." "And she will bring my rideys back too?"

So, needless to say Samantha did terrific with all the preparations for giving her rideys to the fairy, but it looks like she really didn't get what that all meant exactly and the permanence of giving the rideys to the fairy. We'll see how distraught she is when she wakes up and doesn't have a ridey in her bed to comfort her. She did go to sleep tonight with no tears, so we will hope for the best and hopefully she will like her new toys from the Fairy! (a t-ball set and a new baby)