Operation Bye Bye Paci

It's 10 o'clock on Sunday night, and I should be going to bed. I'm tired, exhausted really, and I have to go back to school tomorrow. #bummer  Mandi and I are presenting at our professional development first thing in the morning.  You would think being well rested would be top priority. Nope. I wanted to pop in and say hi. We were so busy over our Christmas break. I haven't blogged about Christmas, visiting Santa, or any of the other fun stuff we did yet. I promise this week I'll post some pictures and reminisce over the highlights of Christmas 2013.

What I will say is that on Friday I officially began Operation Bye Bye Paci. It's going to be a slow, or long depending how you look at it, process.  Chloe turned 2 1/2 a few weeks ago and is really getting more and more attached to her paci by the hour.  Seriously, she has begun hiding them EVERYWHERE. I'm not even kidding. I can never find one when she needs it (e.g. bedtime) because they're all hidden in the most remote locations that only she and Spanky, her constant companion, know about. When I take her paci from her, she'll throw her fit, get over it, or so I think, and go about her business. The next thing I know, she has another paci in her mouth. I bet I'll be finding pacis hidden in secret corners of our house for years to come.

At Jakki's house, Chloe doesn't take a paci anymore, not even at nap time. Chloe's words: Pacis are for babies, chocolate 'nilk' is for big girls. She's got a lot more to occupy her over there though. She plays with Jenna and Jade non stop.  At home, it's just her and the dogs. Needless to say, the whole 'pacis are for babies' motto goes straight out the nearest window as soon as she gets home. She is a paci sucking, chocolate 'nilk' drinking baby at the Thompson house.

On Friday, I decided that she wasn't going to have one anymore unless her head was on a pillow.  That would be step one. Honestly, Chloe has done remarkably well...until tonight. She has given me her paci without much of a fuss upon waking up in the morning. Each and every time she has "found" another one, I've been able to get her to give it up too.  Tonight though, tonight was a different story. Tonight, we had a meltdown. A sleepy-eyed, but not yet bedtime, I need my paci meltdown. I felt awful. I mean...look at her!

It probably wasn't very thoughtful of me to take a picture of her mid meltdown, but ya know, sometimes a picture is worth a 1000 words. Eventually I gave in...kind of. I told her that she could have her paci, but only if she was laying down on the couch on her pillow. You see, Chloe rarely hardly ever NEVER sits still. Her sitting on a couch for any amount of time just doesn't happen too often. She laid down, sucked on her paci for all of maybe three minutes and started to get off the couch. I said, "Um, if you get up, you have to give me back your paci." Her response? Oh, I was ready for a total meltdown. But, no! Chloe's response was a mere, "Okay!" as she pulled the paci out of her mouth and handed it over.

There you have it my friends. Apparently my kid is an addict. She just needed a quick fix and all was better! We didn't have another mention of the paci until it was bedtime.

My question to all you moms out there is...what methods and ideas did you use to help your baby transition away from a paci without it being so traumatizing for both of you?

We still have a long road ahead of us, and I'm open to ideas and suggestions...just no scrutiny please! She's my baby, my 2 1/2 year old paci loving baby. :)

Till next time,

Lori