The Pacifier is Gone!

Whoo Hoo!

I think this process this weekend was harder on Andrew and I then it was on Ella! At least it was hard on me, I felt just awful about taking her nuk away. But it really was time. Saturday morning after Ella woke up and gave us her nuk, I took the two remaining pacifiers we had in the house upstairs and cut the tips off. This nearly brought me to tears. I felt like I was cutting the head off her favorite doll or something. I felt like the meanest mom in the whole world. I put them back in the cupboard in their normal spot.

We made a trip to Toys R Us later in the morning and bought a few things. One of which was a new tricycle for Ella. We were going to get the nice metal Radio Flyer variety, but she tried out a cheaper plastic model with buttons that made different sounds. So, of course, she liked that better than the nice metal trike. Andrew took her out to the car while I purchased the bribe, I mean, trike.

We came home and left the trike in the car. When it came time for her to take a nap, she went to the cupboard, like she always does and pointed for her nuk. So I gave her one of them. She looked at it, was a little perplexed at the missing tip and showed it to me as she said, "Oh nooo." I told her, "Uh oh, it's broken, that means we have to throw it out." So she went to the trash can without really thinking about it and threw it out. She knows there seems to be an endless supply of pacifiers in this house. Then she went back to the cupboard and reached again for another one. I gave her the second and final "broken" nuk. She looked at that one and promptly threw it in the trash can. Again, went back to the cupboard. This time, I picked her up and showed her there were no more nuks there. Then Andrew said, "You don't need those nuks anymore, you're a big girl now. Big girls don't need pacifiers." She cried for a little bit and went in her room and was sad. While she was pouting, Andrew went down to the car and got the trike and brought it back up.

She wasn't too interested in it right then, but after a few minutes, she cheered up, got on, and Andrew pushed her around. From then on, she didn't need the nuk. She never did take a nap on Saturday, but she did go to bed just fine without it, slept all night long too. Then today, she took her nap and went to bed without it. She did ask for it a couple times yesterday and I just reminded her that they were broken and we threw them away and that she was a big girl and didn't need it.

It really is amazing how quickly kids grow up. She loved her nuk from the first day she was born. I hated to take it away from her, but I also hate seeing four year olds walking around with them in their mouth and they are talking around it. We were definitely headed in that direction. She is such a sweetheart! I do hope she finds something new that will make her just as happy as the pacifier did!