Giving It Up

The nook.  This is what Molly called her pacifier.  Or often, the nookie.  I sort of forced it on her as an infant to stop the incessant colicky crying, and she quickly became an addict.  Over the years, we got to a point where she was only supposed to use it to sleep in her bed.  And for the most part, she followed the rules.  But that little piece of plastic was most assuredly her most treasured comfort item in the world.

We tried to wean her off of it at several age appropriate stages, and failed miserably.  She would cry and cry and wake up all night long, and we just gave in.  Part of me felt like it wasn't hurting anything.  It was just this one little thing that made her feel comforted, and if it was a teddy bear or a blanket, we wouldn't be trying to take it away from her.  It wasn't hindering her speech (that's for sure) or damaging her teeth.  But it just always seemed like the pacifier use had gone on too long.  Eventually, there was only one nook left.  And it was the nastiest, chewed on little thing you've ever seen.  And every other night, we'd have to spend five or ten minutes looking for it while Molly claimed to have no clue where it could be hiding.  If you've ever seen a three year old look for something, you know how frustrating and futile it is.  It got pretty annoying.

And then one day last week, we couldn't find it.  I looked for a solid 45 minutes at bedtime, and it was just gone.  Molly was frantic.  But after all my chickening out, there was nothing I could do.  Bryce managed to talk her down, and she did go to bed.  She's gotten up a few times, and seems to be waking up earlier in the morning, but overall it went a lot better than I expected.  She doesn't ask for it anymore at night, and will still take a nap in the afternoon.

Yesterday though, she got upset over something, I can't even remember what.  She sat down next to me, and said "Mom, sometimes when you're bummed out, you just want a nook."  But she knew it was over.  And then I cleaned her room, and found the beloved nookie behind a box of pull-ups.  I was a little sad for her, my big girl, but in the trash it went.  Finally.  Success.

Also, some rocket shooting in the rock quarry over the long weekend.  Porter built that one himself!