That’s me. Dummy free! Mum and Dad are very happy. To be honest I was quite happy having the dummy, it felt nice, and one or t’other of the staff parents was there to put it back in for me during the night. However, my big brother leads the way, once again: because HE’d got rid of HIS when he was 5 months old, then I had to too. Huff. (It might also have had something to do with the fact that Lex needed it to get back to sleep every time it fell out. 2:30am, 3:30am, 4:30am . . . Ed.)
I guess it’s not that bad though. Took about a week, and was a bit tough at times – it didn’t get as bad as having shakes and cold 
sweats, but I still had withdrawal symptoms, which I let Mum and Dad know about. Loudly. Daytimes were most tricky, to be honest – when you’re awake and you want something, it’s so much harder to ignore that want! When you’re half asleep and in the dark, you just kind of get bored of protesting. However, it appears Mum and Dad’s resolve was stronger than mine . . . They did give me lots of cuddles to make up for it, I guess, which was really quite nice. So anyway now I can sleep more restfully without it, and Mum and Dad seem happier and don’t have to
“use matchsticks for their eyes” (very strange sayings they have, adults). Mum also seems to be pleased that she doesn’t have to keep washing the things or taking spare ones with us when we go out. I must admit it’s rather nice not needing a dummy, makes me feel very grown up indeed.
Speaking of which: growing up is really hard work! Like I said, I was sleeping more restfully without the dummy. However, this last week’s a bit of a weird one, I’m pretty grouchy right now (as you can see from this pic here!) 
so watch out. Everything’s just annoying me – yes Finlay, that includes you when you poke your finger in my mouth or run into me with your truck or sit on me or give me a nose-kiss/headbutt. Listening?! Other things annoy me too, like being put down when I don’t want to be, or being put on my tummy for that pesky tummy-time I’m supposed to have, or being taken out to the shops, or being changed or dressed, or. . . . Sorry. I’ll stop ranting. It’s just that like I said growing up takes a lot of energy, I’m real tired right now and just want to sleep. I sleep lots in the day, Mum likes it ‘cos it means I’m quiet in the car when we’re going somewhere; I’m usually not, it’s so boring being on the back seat and having nothing to look at except the sky. Oh and Finlay. Though I suppose he’s quite interesting, really. An entirely different species, boys. I didn’t realise they could produce such messy sneezes . . . Anyway, I digress. What was I saying? Oh yes, I need to sleep. Except the darned thing is that at nighttime I seem to wake up at 1:30amish for no apparent reason. Mum gives me boob juice, which is nice, but I still seem to flutter awake again about 4:30 or 5 and doze intermittently thereafter. And for some reason all my clothes seem to be too small for me right now, which is just unreasonable. I liked those cool rainbow jeans. Sigh. See? Growing up’s just difficult.
Perhaps it means I’ll have some new trick I can do at the end of my grouchy period. Fin told me that apparently it’s quite common to feel unreasonably grumpy just before you’re able to achieve something cool. He found he was the same just before he could roll over, or sit up, or crawl, or things of that nature, because your brain’s just working, working, working on developing the capacity to do that activity.
I await my new super-power with interest. In the meantime, sorry Mum, but you’ll just have to give me extra cuddles.
Latest pics and vids of me here (and some of Fin, if you really want to see him too).
http://picasaweb.google.com/finlaygeorgesmith/LatestFinAndLexPicsMarchApril09
