Part of this years Easter explosion of events was getting rid of Lili's nuks.  Yes, I know she's almost 4 and still has a nuk.  She doesn't use it during the day or for naps...just bedtime.  Most of the time I find that she spits it out soon after she falls asleep and goes without it for the rest of the night.  I figured that was better than chomping on it for 10 hours...  Even though I, personally, didn't care so much that she still had one, I knew that the world around me found it socially unacceptable...and I knew that meant we needed to transition her off of them.  So, several weeks before Easter I explained to her that the Easter Bunny was coming and that we were going to have to leave all of her nuks for him.  He would come in the middle of the night, take her nuks and leave lots of special treats for her to enjoy in the morning.  I also told her that her nuks would be taken to lots of little babies who were crying and really needed them.  She's like her Mama and couldn't stand the thought of little babies crying, so she seemed very agreeable to this idea. 

At least every other day, if not every day, we brought up the Easter Bunny and would ask her what he was planning to do during his visit.  She got to the point where she could fully explain what was going to happen to her nuks and where the Easter Bunny was going to take them. 

Finally, Easter Eve arrived... 

I think I talked to her about going to bed without her nuks just about every 30 minutes.  She seemed fine with the idea but I was starting to freak about bedtime...wondering if she REALLY understood what all of this meant.  I didn't want her to be surprised.  That afternoon I told her she should make a picture for the Easter Bunny and once she was done decorating we would write him a note.  She was so cute about it and even wrote her own name...

This was the finished masterpiece.  You can see her name along the right hand side in large letters.  We haven't discussed uppercase vs. lowercase yet.  I just want her to get the letters and the sequence of the letters right first!  Normally she writes her name with 2 uppercase L's and 2 lowercase i's...and there are times when she doesn't put them in sequence.  If you remind her to do an L first...then an I...then another L...then another I...she will do it.  If you tell her just to write her name, sometimes she will come back with it done perfectly.  Other times she will have 2 L's written, followed by 2 I's.  It's almost like she thinks that as long as she accounts for all 4 letters, it doesn't matter what sequence they are in.  I suppose that comes with time...and practice!  

Her last 4 nuks...waiting to be taken away...and given to the babies who are crying and need them...

...and a nice little letter back from the Easter Bunny...telling Lili how proud of her he was for sharing her nuks!