I admit my kids were(are??) addicted to pacifiers. Emily more so than Ethan. As a new mom, I was so hesitant about giving Ethan one, but after having him suck on my finger for three months, I caved. Like a trooper, he one day decided he was too big to have a pacifier and threw them away in the trash. But with Emily, when the nurses in the hospital asked me if they could give her one, I immediately said, "Yes!" She has had a pacifier practically since they day she was born.
As she turned two, we started talking more about being a "big girl" - peeing on the potty, not using a pacifier, sleeping in a big bed. Emily will happily sit on the potty (most of the time) and often go, so she already thinks she is a "big girl". But since she hasn't gone a day without her pacifier, I knew that the habit would be very very very hard to break. Then to my surprise, today of all days, she decided she didn't need one anymore.
My great friend, Kendra, had a baby a few months ago and Emily is in love with little Jack, even though they live in China. Thanks to wonderful technology, we get to see and talk to Kendra regularly on our computer using Skype. Emily will often walk over to the computer and say, "I see baby Jack," meaning she wants to call them to see the baby. Kendra came up with an inspired plan to have Emily give all her pacifiers to Jack when she was ready. A stroke of genius! After Kendra planted the seed, Emily began understanding that pacifiers were just for babies, not for big girls. We kept talking about the plan - how we would mail the pacifiers to Jack when she was ready.
So this morning when I got Emily from her crib, she proceeded to tell me, "Mama, I ready."
My immediate response was, "Ready for what?"
She handed me the pacifier out of her mouth, scooped up the other ones in her crib and pushed them at all me. "For Jack," she said.
Ohhhhh, I get it! "Are you sure, Emily?" I was thinking of crying fits, temper tantrums and erratic behavior that can usually be calmed by her pacifier. Am I ready?
A huge smile spread across her face, "I ready, Mama."
Again, "Are you sure you want to give all your pacifiers to Jack, Emily?"
"Yes."
"Are you really sure?"
"Um, huh."
Ok, I figured I should probably jump at this opportunity and I took the pacifiers. We headed downstairs to tell Ethan the big news. He was immediately excited and went to get a box for us to pack them up. We put all the pacifiers in an empty shoe box and taped it shut. Then Ethan wrote "JACK" in big letters across the lid. I put it by the door and told them that I would give it to the mailman when he came that afternoon. No other mention of the pacifiers all morning.
That was until we got home after lunch and it was nap time. As soon as we got in the door, Emily immediately ran over to the box and tried to open it. Stupid me - I should have moved it from her sight! As I scooped her up, she was yelling, "I need pacifier!" But I could easily talk her out of her "need" by again mentioning baby Jack and how proud and happy he would be to have all her pacifiers. She so loves that baby (and she had never even met him!). We headed upstairs for a nap, which I knew would be quite a battle without a pacifier. Luckily, Emily was extremely tired from playing with her buddy, Ella, all morning. After reading one book, I put her in her crib. (We haven't gotten to the big bed yet.) She instantly looked frantic and started crying. I got her to calm down by offering her a book to look at instead. Not more than 5 minutes later, she was bawling. All I could think was, "Is this really worth it?!?" I called Jon for reinforcement. Yes, I/we could to this!
And I went back into Emily's room. She stopped crying as soon as she saw me. We again talked about baby Jack and how big she was now that she didn't need a pacifier. She was exhausted and drained, so this time I could get her to lay down and wrapped a blanket around her. She just stared off as I continued comforting her but smiled at any mention of baby Jack. She was proud of herself. I am so proud of her. Finally, she was serene, on the verge of falling asleep. No more crying, no more noise. I checked on her in a few minutes and she had in fact fallen asleep, all by herself. Yeah!!
Now we'll just see how bedtime goes . . . . .
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