Bye Bye Paci

I feel like I should take a moment to acknowledge some dear friends who are no longer with us: Kate's PACIFIERS. Those of you who knew Kate as a baby will remember that she was plain old unhappy without them. Period. Since we gave Kate a paci when she was 2 weeks old (it was love at first suck for all of us!) she had not slept for 10 minutes in her life without them... until we tried to take them away about a year ago. Eesh. Scout and I were so pleased with ourselves as we devised the plan for Kate to "mail" her pacis to the Paci Fairy and we just knew it would work, yadda yadda. It didn't. At all. It was the longest 3 weeks ever. In history. Of all time. As the pacifier-less nights went on they grew worse and worse. Our clockwork 14-hour a day sleeper was gone and in her place was a strung out little thing, running on E and completely emotionally undone. As she ran around the house in hysterics I was looking over my shoulder for the camera crews from "Nanny 911" and "Super Nanny." Needless to say, we decided she wasn't ready, gave her the pacifiers back, and loved them more than ever when she immediately was able to rest again. Since then, we have tried off and on to persuade her to get rid of them and a couple times have actually taken them away and every time it is the same story. Those people who say that they will have a few rough nights and then get over it are big liars. I have been fine with the pacifier addiction since our first attempt at removal and just accepted that she may be the only kid at college with a nuk. Scout, however, had her best interest at heart and has been pushing the no-paci agenda as he has noticed a little slant in her teeth and hears his own voice in his head telling him to practice what he preaches to his patients. So, there we were. We sat Kate down a few weeks ago and told her that she would be giving her pacifiers up when we went to Disney World. ...That we were going to leave them at Cinderella's Castle so she could pass them along to babies who needed them and it would be magical and fun and there would be a giftshop trip involved afterward, but that they would be gone. G-O-N-E. No negotiations, sister. She agreed. Scout and I took a deep breath, braced ourselves for what we knew lay ahead, and told ourselves to enjoy the last couple precious weeks of peace. About a week later, however, Kate came into Carter's room and said "Mommy I didn't want to wait for Disney. I am done with my pacis now and I threw them away." She took me by the hand and sure enough, she had thrown them all in the trash can. (Even the ones she hid away!) My first instinct was "Eeeek! It is almost bedtime and that's our whole stash!" But we went with it, and she was right. She was done. Not a peep about them that night and has not missed them at all since. We were in shock. I am continually amazed by how little people know themselves and know their own limits and timetables. She just needed to be in control... wonder where she gets that.

I am glad to document our road to "no-paci-ville" because something tells me that we may need to remember this journey one day...