On potties and pacis

I posted this picture yesterday on Instagram. I felt I had to commemorate the day in some way.

We threw away the paci. She really hasn't used it probably for the last couple of weeks now. This is huge! And it was much less painful than I thought it might be, as far as officially being done. Kate said I should blog about how we did it and since my blogging seems to have come to a halt, I thought yes! Why not.

Karlyn loved her paci(s) and yes there were multiple. She was a paci baby from the get-go and we thought we had struck gold the day she learned to put the thing back in her mouth by herself. Fast forward to a year, 15 months, 18 months, and that paci love was still going strong. By that point it was getting harder to keep up with them because the little rascal would chunk it behind her bed and we'd have to move the bed to get it. Or they'd just end up wherever. Always making sure you have one, needing it to go back to sleep. It gets tiring. So I'd say a month or two ago, we decided to limit her to one paci. She was already only getting it at night; she napped at daycare without it. So the pink one it was. We stashed the other four in a basket on top of her dresser (bad idea. bad idea.)

Anyways, then one Saturday I told Ryan we needed to cut the tip off her one paci. Before I could get to it, he had done it and I guess cutting the tip off didn't mean the same thing to both of us. He pretty much slashed the thing in half! It was hilarious and Karlyn would still put it in her mouth. We all decided her paci was "broken" but that she could still have it at night. Daddy told her the others had gone in the trash. :-0

Without me even noticing, over the past month, she gradually got less and less attached to it. And it got cut a little bit more. We're still having bedtime issues and in the middle of the night she began going back to sleep without it. About two weeks ago we realized she wasn't using it at all anymore AND wasn't ever mentioning it. Score! That's when I decided to throw it away. It felt kind of sad. :( My little baby isn't a baby anymore. 

The one funny thing happened when one night Ryan decided to set her up ON THE DRESSER for a minute. Well of course she looks in the basket and sees the pacis. I hear commotion coming from her room so I join them in there and the look on her face was priceless. She goes,

"Momma, I found my green paci, and my pink paci, AND MY PURPLE PACI!!!" 

It was like she wanted to explode with joy and shock. And that's when the paci's were promptly removed from the basket.

I'm so glad we are past that stage and that she did really well with it. Sometimes daddy has to step in and be firm!

*****

Potty training. Still going strong! She has done really well and I'm so proud of her. Right now she's been wearing a pull-up to school, panties at home (when I think about it) and a diaper at night to sleep in. Today her teacher told me that the past two days she's had no accidents except for going #2 in her pull-up. (She does this fine at home) So...that means we get to start wearing big girl panties to school! I think she'll be happy about that and then they will still do a pull-up for nap. She is still scared I think to pee on the "big potty" at home but that will come. And she has done it a couple times, even out of the house. For us, two seemed the be the age when it just clicked. I tried before and I just never felt like she was truly ready. I bought her little pink singing potty way back when (can't remember!) and introducing it to her I think was a good idea and just letting her sit on it before bath time. I've heard another mom of three girls say two and a half was the magic age for them. And then I know some kiddos train before two. Boys...I have no idea. ha.

*****

It's all a part of growing up I guess. Before I know it I'll be seeing this scene play out and waving goodbye as I drop her off at school. Sniff, sniff!