Farewell, Old Friend




 At last Thursday's dentist appointment, Lily's dentist said the words we knew were coming, but didn't want to hear:

She needs to give up the pacifier.

Though she was using it only at night, the dentist feared that continued pacifier use could alter Lily's bite, tooth alignment and her jaw. So we went home that evening knowing we had to do the inevitable. We talked to Lily about it extensively:

Us: "Only babies use pacifiers."
Lily: "I want to be a baby."

Us: "I'm sure there's a sad little baby out there who needs a pacifier."
Lily: "I don't want to give it to a baby."

Finally, we convinced her to give her pacifier to a baby we knew, Lauren, who is the little sister of Lily's friend, Jillian. I told Lily I would send the paci over to Lauren and she would be soooo happy. That seemed to satisfy Lily.

At bedtime, she didn't even mention the pacifier and went to bed just fine...for about five minutes. Lily did not want to go to sleep and it took us two hours to get her to bed. Since then, bedtime has gotten a little easier but not as easy as it was in the "paci" days, where she would be asleep in five minutes. She's also waking up at night again, but hopefully it's only a phase.

In other farewell news, Lily also became officially potty trained about six weeks ago. No more diapers!