A Major Milestone

In the life of our baby girl, we hit one of our major milestones this past Thursday. On Wednesday, I decided I was taking her pacifier away on Friday. This way, I would have the weekend to deal with the consequences. I decided the way I'd do this was to convince her to leave it out for the "paci fairy" who would leave her a present for it in return. I was explaining this concept to her that evening at bedtime, but she wasn't buying it. Logan, however, thought it was a fabulous idea and asked if the "car fairy" could visit him. He's already wheeling and dealing at the age of 5. I let it go that evening and brought it up with a few people throughout the next day and many of them mentioned that the child they knew had simply thrown the paci away. Well, screw you, I thought. My stubborn daughter would never go for that. I was prepared for battle. So Thursday night, Joey and I are in the kitchen trying to convince her to get rid of it when I say, "Gracie, if you throw it away we'll go to Target and buy you a present." Low and behold if she didn't walk straight to the trash can and toss it. Joey and I stared at each other in disbelief while we waited for her to go back to the trash can to retrieve it. It never happened - she carried on playing with Logan. We ate dinner and took off to Target. She picked out a baby playpen and a new baby doll that came with bathtime accessories. We brought them home and she played for about an hour until bedtime. We put on pj's and read stories like normal. The I started tucking Logan in and she asked where her paci was. I reminded her that she threw it away and she started crying. THIS is what I had expected all along and was the main reason I intended to start this adventure on a Friday night when I had the weekend to deal with it. I took her in her room and tried to rock her, but she was having none of it. I finally managed to talk over her crying and remind her of the "big girl presents" we bought. She began to calm down and I asked if she wanted to sleep with the baby doll. She did. She went and got it, we rocked a bit longer, and she went on to sleep. She was up for a few minutes around 11 crying for it, but it seems that was the worst I have to deal with. She has occasionally asked for it since then, but I remind her that she threw it away, and she's fine. What a miracle! I really thought she was going to be awful when we got rid of it, but she's done great. Now I just have to finish potty training!