Boom There Goes the Paci

Who knew growing up could be so difficult? We have a very independent, hard headed, sweet, and wonderful toddler. Toddler's are busy bodies with a mind of their own. I know many of you are reading the title of this post wondering why our precious girl still has a paci. Well we have been pretty easy on her seeing that in the past 8 months she has moved from Louisville to Greenville, then from Greenville to Rocky Hill, had a baby brother, and gone from living with grandparents (lets face it they are not worth fighting, let them give her everything and be thankful they can) to just the Mr. and I. Let's just say her world has been rocked the past 8 months so while I know the paci was suppose to go at 2 its been hard to take away something that brings her such comfort in her very crazy world. So here we are at 25 months and we are officially paci free! Can I get an AMEN! Since discovering we were pregnant with Baylor we had pretty much just had her down to using her paci at nap time and bedtime. Occasionally though she would get a whole day. Now that we are settled and life is getting somewhat normal (whatever that is) we decided it was time for it to go. Now I am no parenting expert but I know there are parents out there having the same problem as we have had and are just looking for an idea to help. Trust me I scavenged the internet for all different ideas. Some people suggested cutting the tip of the paci off, others recommended going cold turkey, while some said she would just give it up on her own. I came up with my own idea. My darling girl has developed empathy and is very concerned about the well being of others. "Mommy are you okay?" is a phrase I hear all day. I decided to play this to my advantage and talk to her about how there are babies out there that don't have a paci and need one. On Tuesday, we decided that we would mail her paci to a baby who needed one. That gave us a week to get rid of the paci. We began with nap time. As long as I sat in the room with her until she fell asleep there were no complaints about being paci free. Sitting in the room with her is a new things since moving to Connecticut, and I can't blame her. That night I just waited for her to ask me for a paci, which of course she did. I decided bedtime wasn't worth the fight the first day. Wednesday we did the same thing, except when it came time for bed that night and she asked for it I asked her if she really needed it. Which her response was "yes." Again, not wanting to fight her I gave it to her. Yesterday was a different story. We made it through nap time perfectly, and at bedtime she asked for a paci which I again asked if she needed and she told me no that another little baby did. A whole night of sleep with no paci is a success to me! I am still going to be playing it by ear tonight but as of today we mailed her paci off to a baby who needed one (which she chose her Uncle, who is by no means a baby but hey she chose and I am not stopping her. She seems to think that she is big girl now. Which, I have to admit she definitely is. 

In honor of our dear friend paci I am including a series of pictures of our darling girl and her beloved paci! 

Goodbye good friend thank you for all the crying you have ceased.