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Sophie had a visit from somebody very special today. The BotBot Fairy came to collect her botbot and the toy one that she insists her elephant needs. In order to get her potty trained at night she needs to lower her dependence on bottles for comfort. I have put this off for a while but I'm sure that's just 'cos I don't want to admit she's growing up This has been used by supernanny, but my mum actually did this for me 22 years ago so supernanny can go suck her feet.

She is very into fairies (faeries?!) and I kind of figured this might work. We had a little ceremony this morning in the early sunlight. I took her and some "special magic" fabric (sequin net bought as a cheap remnant off chelmsford market) into the garden, along with the elephant and the botbots. We sat in the sun and I explained how she's such a big girl now that the botbot fairy has asked me to send her bottled out to be replaced by a big-girl night-time cup.
I got sophie to say the magic words "bot bot fairy, I'm a big girl!" (or in soph's words "botbotfairy, my are big giw!") and then she had to cover the botbots with the fabric. I then led her back inside to watch Me Too on cbeebies.

once she was safely engrossed I nipped back outside and swapped both bottles for cups. I also sprinkled sugar around; it sparkled like glitter in the sun but it soluable lol. botbots have been hidden; they will be kept just in case!! I then called sophie all excited and made a big thing about the change over. she was in awe. she then insisted on phoning daddy. he made a big thing out of it too.

we got to mother and toddler group today and the lady who runs it said "hello soph, did you do anything good this weekend?" sophie said "botbotfairy! my's cup! my big giw". Lady who runs playgroup gave soph a sticker for being such a big girl which made soph's day, and the lady behind me in the queue asked if it's the same as the dummy fairy

then when we got home Nanny and Harry (jim's mum and stepdad) came over on their way home from jim's brothers' house and sophie told them off her own back, no prompting at all. I had to explain the whole botbot fairy thing and my mum in law joked that she'd practically needed a crowbar to get my hubby off the breast at age 3. Harry said he wished he'd thought of the fairy for his own daughter.

later came the real test, nap time. after a bit of a wobble and asking repeatedly for a bottle, I told her that the fairy was happy to see she's such a big girl and that it's ok to miss botbot, but another pretty baby needed her botbot to go to sleep with and so she needed to use her new cup. she accepted this and was out like a light.

bed time will be another test; it took 3 weeks of tantrums to get her in to only having botbots at nap and bed time rather than all day so I'm not expecting this to be easy; but she's happy for now at least :D

Aww Mrs F - that's a lovely story, and one I'm sure Soph will carry with her for ever - and most likely use on her own big giws and bois!
We're keeping fingers crossed that it works well and quickly!

thats a really nice way of doing it no screaming ab-dabs

I've tucked that away for future reference! It's a lovely way to do things. Hope bedtime wasn't too painful for either of you!

that is really nice, wish i had done that with mine,we have the tooth fairy visiting at the moment the trippies are losing teeth i could make a necklace

well, bed time was not fun. I think because daddy was home and therefore she knew she could play him more than she can me. Also he was later home than usual due to traffic on the M25 so it was all off last night. hoping tonight will be easier. I've told him if she's in bed when he gets home it's just a one off and he (and she) will have to live wth it. she didn't go to sleep until 10:30 last night and of course hubby blamed the lack of bottle. I blame the fact that he was playing on the computer with her until 9. I kept saying "it's bedtime soon" expecting him to get the flipping hint.

I'm sure if he knew where the bottle was being kept he'd have got it out last night!!!

not looking forward to this evening.

hun that is brill wel done you but word of advice...throw the bottles away...cause if she has a stonker of a tantrum you may be wanting to give up and its easier when the bottles are still in house...

Thanks Tea, I've been thinking about that since james went sureptitiously looking for them last night lol!!!
you know how attatched she was to it for bed time so it's sort of feeling like I've cut her arm off at the moment!!!

That really is such a lovely idea, all shounds much nicer and calmer. I will tuck that one away for a few years time as well.

mrsflibble wrote:Thanks Tea, I've been thinking about that since james went sureptitiously looking for them last night lol!!!
you know how attatched she was to it for bed time so it's sort of feeling like I've cut her arm off at the moment!!!

At tough moments like that I wheel out that wise old mantra "and this too shall pass". Good luck!

I just keep thinking back a few months to when I stopped her having one during the day, except for naps. before that she'd spend all day with one either in her mouth or her hand. that was a hard week's worth of almost solid argumnents and cryin, and she STILL asks for one during the day even though she knows it's not allowed.little sweetie.

Well done MrsF - brilliant plan - those faeries are very good helpmates