When Amanda was around two and a half, I decided it was time for her to give up her pacifier. So I first read several articles about this momentous occasion in a toddler's life, searching all over the internet for the world's most gentle and sensitive pacifier weaning method. After much deliberation, I settled on a course of action. I wrote her a book called, "Bye Bye Paci." It took several days to put together on my computer, then I sent it off to Apple to have it bound with a hard cover and mailed back to us. It included pictures and captions of Amanda as a newborn and slowly growing into toddlerhood, and slowly growing out of baby things like cribs and crawling and diapers and, of course, pacifiers. We read it every night for about three weeks, while I very sensitively acclimated her to the idea of not sleeping with her beloved paci anymore. Finally when there was no more doubt that she was ready, we made a special trip to a newborn baby's house and gave all the pacifiers to her. We came home and when it was time to go to bed for the first time without her paci, Amanda cried and cried and then pretty quickly got over it.
Fast forward two and a half years. We couldn't find any of Elizabeth's pacifiers one night at bedtime. So instead of sending Brian to Walgreens for yet another package of pacifiers, I said, "well, sorry kiddo; I guess there'll be no paci anymore." No book; no acclimation period; no nothing, really. And she cried and cried and then pretty quickly got over it.
Elizabeth loves to read Amanda's Bye Bye Paci book. One night recently she started pointing to the pictures of Amanda and asking, "Is this ME?" "Is this when I was a baby?" I'd reluctantly admit, "No, honey, this is Amanda. I made this book a loooooong time ago, when you were a tiny baby." She furrowed her brow and stared up at me, long and hard. Finally I asked, "Elizabeth, would you like for me to write a Bye Bye Paci book about you?" "YES!" she begged with an edge of anger in her voice, "DO THAT!" "Of course I will," I sputtered, after recovering from the swift punch to the gut her words had inflicted on me.
I am working on that book now. Hopefully she will enjoy it as much as the one about her big sister. Sorry it took me so long, Itty Bit.
2 comments:
Every great book demands a sequel. Grandpa Ron
What a creative and devoted Mommy you are! All it took at the Sullivans was for the doctor to say that Amelia's pacifier wasn't helping out her mouth issues, including cutting her teeth behind schedule. Sy heard that and no more pacifiers for him. Amelia? She just sucks her, mine, and Allison's fingers!
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