The Paci Fairy

     When Teagan turned 2 years old back in October, I started thinking about a good time to take the paci away.  I knew I wanted to do it before little August was born, but since she only had it for naps and bedtime, it was hard for me to think of taking it from her.  She never made a big deal of having it, but I noticed that when we moved her into a new "big girl" room and she got a "big girl" bed, she seemed to grow a little more attached to the paci.  Since her birthday is at the end of October, it seemed like there was always something going on with all the holidays, birthdays, weddings, baby showers, vacations, etc... that there just wasn't a good time to take it away.  I had almost given up until one Sunday evening, a few weeks ago, when the perfect opportunity came our way!  Renny, Teagan, and I were out for a walk around town and when we got home, discovered that our dog Bisou had gone upstairs into Teagan's room, got her paci and brought it downstairs to snack on.  She ate half of it! Teagan found it on the floor and, oooh man, was she mad at Bisou!  She ran over to me with it and said, "it's ok mommy. It's ok. We just buy new one at a store, right???!!!" 

     I decided this was the perfect time to take it away.  I explained to her that since she was such a big girl, we couldn't buy any more paci's... they are really just for babies.  I went on to tell her about how we could hang the paci on her bedroom door, and when she went to sleep, the Paci Fairy would come and exchange it for a big girl toy.  She didn't seem on board with this until the word "toy" came out of my mouth.  She gladly stuck her paci in a baggie and helped me hang it on her door at bedtime.  She was overjoyed the next morning when she discovered the toy from the Paci Fairy!  She has only asked for her paci twice since  then and is satisfied when I remind her that she traded them to the Paci Fairy for her big girl toy.  If I knew it was going to be so easy, I would have done it months ago!