T-Rex

What a nice surprise this morning when I went outside and the sun was shining. Hello Spring! One more reason I'm excited that it's March. More from the weekend as promised!

So Friday I decided that this was going to be the weekend that we took away Gracen's Paci. Now this was a personal dilemma for me, becuase as a kid I was unhealthily obsessed with addicted to, my pacifier. My parents have told me stories of how they used to hide them on top of bookshelves thinking I wouldn't get to them. Then sometime later they would find me hiding in a corner with it after I had climbed up and got it. So I feel pretty hypocritical taking hers away, considering I still remember being devastated when they took it away from me.

Every parenting book I've read, doctor or friend I have talked to, has recommended to get rid of it by age 1. Gracen will be 2 in a couple weeks. Whoops. Since Christmas time, I've been saying when she turns 2 we'll get rid of it. BUT, I love birthdays. And I did not want her to associate such a special day with getting rid of her paci, so we had to move the date up a bit. It was starting to interfere with her eating (or at least that's my excuse as to why she sometimes refused to eat dinner), and was generally driving me and Gabe up the wall with whining for it.

So Friday night, we were done with the paci. And I must say Gracen took it all in stride. Much to Gabe and I's relief. Before I put her to bed I told her "You're a big girl, and big girl's don't need paci's". Much to my surprise she said Ok, and laid down. As soon as I shut her door, she started to cry. I knew it couldn't be that easy! After only 5 minutes of crying, Gabe being the softy that he is, was starting to second guess taking it away. And I will admit it's hard to let your 2 year old scream bloody murder when your 5 month old is asleep in the next room. So after 30 minutes of letting her cry, we couldn't take it anymore. But it was my decision to take it away, so I told Gabe I'd be the bad guy. I went into her room and told her she was a "big girl" and asked if she wanted to sleep in the "Big girl" bed. She said yes. So we went in the guest room and laid on the big bed and she was out within a minute, and not even a whimper! Didn't even wake up once during the night. Now that's what I call success!