Per our friends’ suggestion, we bought some balloons and explained that the Wubs were going bye bye in the sky. Amelia seemed to understand what was about to go down from the get-go, while Samantha was simply excited to see balloons.
Samantha became hysterical, screaming and refusing to let go of the balloons. She then proceeded to start popping them (smart girl!) and since we didn’t have back-ups for lift off, Jake and I had to tear the balloons away from her and let them go ourselves.
I’m sure any money I’ve saved on dental work will be negated by therapy costs in the future.
After the funeral, all the girls would talk about was how their Wubs went bye bye in the sky. And how they would now get a “prize” and a “treat.” Pretty sure they invented that last part.
I’m thinking the girls should go into hostage negotiating. We ended up taking them to pick out a new ball and toy, mostly because they made us feel so bad. Parenting fail.
Friday night bedtime was arguably the worst bedtime we’ve had in two years. What’s usually a 15-minute to fall-asleep time once Jake leaves the room became an hour-and-a-half of screaming plus catching a second and third wind of hyper obnoxiousness.
This included, but was not limited to, jumping on their beds, opening their doors fifteen thousand times, running around the playroom, slamming the shutters open and shut, dumping every item of clothing out of the dresser drawers, throwing hair ribbons all over the room, and chucking toys at the door.
At one point, Amelia seemed tired of the shenanigans and read quietly on her bed while Samantha continued to throw tantrums. She didn’t seem too concerned about the loss of her Wub and matter-of-factly explained to me that, “Wubs…bye bye…sky.”
Both girls eventually passed out and woke up a few times at night crying for their Wubbies. Total guilt trip. Knowing it’s all for the best didn’t make us any less sad for the girls.
Don’t tell S and A, but I saved the stuffed animal portion of their Wubs for their Baby Boxes. Maybe one day, I can give them to the girls without them becoming hysterical. We originally thought we might give the stuffed animal part to the girls after waving goodbye to the pacifiers, but that just seemed to make Samantha even angrier, so we hid them away instead.
The next day wasn’t any better with the girls refusing to nap AT ALL. Watching them try and fall asleep was like watching a fish out of water– they flailed about, moving their mouths, not knowing what to do with themselves. I was about to give in and run down to Buy Buy Baby for a new stock of Wubs, when Jake arrived just in time to talk me off the ledge.
Fortunately, the second night post-Wubbies was light years better than the first and the girls went down in under a half hour.
On Day Three, I had intense anxiety about the girls not napping again, but they went down fine and had a normal bedtime to boot.
Today, Samantha picked up one of our Shutterfly albums and went ballistic when she saw a picture of her as a baby with– you guessed it– a Wub in her mouth. Cue what I refer to as the “Limp noodle tantrum” wherein she goes completely floppy and flails her appendages dangerously, making it near impossible to move her.
Once she calmed down, Amelia and I had a very rational conversation with her in which we explained being a big girl is fun– she gets to go swimming, doesn’t have to wear diapers, and gets to run around the park. Babies don’t get to have fun like big girls. This set Samantha off even more as she proclaimed she wanted to be a baby. Can’t argue with that logic.
Samantha calmed down a bit at the second mention of swimming, and while she had a few hysterical moments right before nap, she fell asleep, sobbing.
