The Great Pacifier Purge

We've begun the Great Pacifier Purge of 2010.

Gabby came into this world making sucking motions with her mouth, yet she wasn't a thumb-sucker in-utero. So, starting at the nursery at the hospital we consented to let her have a pacifier. While she was never one of those children who has to have a paci 24/7, and definitely is not a candidate for surgical removal of same, she is attached to it. We were able to wean her off of it so she only has it at bedtime.

Now, Gabby has probably half a dozen of those rubber abominations, thanks to Grammy, who seemingly bought them by the gross from WalMart. We are now in the position of discovering all of the places where Gabby might have a pacifier stashed, because we're about to get rid of them completely.

A couple of months ago, knowing that this day would come, I decided to try a little experiment. As we were leaving to go to school and work one morning, I told her to throw paci in the trash. She complied, but immediately this look that was a cross between panic and ... panic, came across her little face.

"Paci gone?"
"Yes, Gabby, paci's gone."
"Paci dirty!"
"Yes, Gabby, paci's dirty, so you can't use that one anymore."
"Want paci?" This one was said with a note of wistfulness. I giggled to myself, thinking she'd forget about it. Later that night, she asked about it, but we had a few (sigh) backups, so it wasn't a problem.

This past weekend, we tried the experiment again, this time starting to talk to her about having to throw paci away.

"Gabby, we have to throw paci in the trash."
"NO! Nononononono no!"

Eventually I took her to the trash can and made her toss one in. She wasn't happy; we just threw another one away this morning (I did say they were apparently bought by the gross, didn't I?). The goal is to have them all gone within the next week or two. The kid is turning two years old on Thursday, and I do NOT want to be that parent with her 5 year-old running around with a pacifier in her mouth. It's going to be rough going for a few nights after the final one goes away, but we can do it.

Next up: potty training.