Bye Bye Paci

We did it! We have broken Peyton of the pacifier. I didn't intend to do it when I did. It was actually an impulsive decision to do it when I did. We thought we would potty train her first, but she doesn't seem at all interested in the potty. But it is time for something to go--if not the diapers, then the paci. Here's how it happened...

When she was getting ready for a nap on Tuesday she accidentally dropped her paci behind her bed onto the floor. When I retrieved it, I told her I had to go wash it. On the way to the kitchen, I realized how tired I was of her having a paci and how she was too old to have it. I guess it really bothered me for the first time. So I washed it. Then, I cut it. I took out the kitchen scissors and snipped off the very tip of it. I wondered if she would notice, not really knowing how that would affect the sucking.

Back in her room, I gave it back to her without a word. After about three seconds of her sucking on it, she pulled it out and examined it. Not really having time to think through what I had done, I waited nervously during these few seconds to see what would happen. With a pained look on her face, she asked me to "close this back up". I told her that I guess it broke when she dropped it on the floor and that it couldn't be fixed. I also told her she could still have it if she wanted it. She got upset and threw it down, saying "don't like it, don't want it."

That nap session was a little difficult. I let her get up and come sit with me on the couch and watch her favorite cartoon as a consolation (and let's just be honest...a way to delay the oncoming fit). On the way back to bed, she asked for another paci, specifically for the pink one. It was the orange one that "broke," you see. I told her that we must have left the pink one in South Carolina at Nannie's house, because I hadn't seen it. Then we went back to bed, and I tried to distract her by telling her all the things I was so pround of her for. I could tell she liked me saying that. She gave a half smile, wimpered and whined some, but went to sleep without too much crying.

That night, we made the broken paci into a finger puppet and made a big deal of having fun with it. On Wednesday, she only asked for it a couple times. We reminded her that it was broken but that she could still have it if she wanted it. She refused it, and hasn't asked for it all today. Here are pictures of the broken paci and of her playing with it Tuesday night.