Bye Bye, Paci!

So I alluded to some pretty big news concerning the little one last week, and here it is: he has officially gotten rid of the paci!

It happened so unexpectedly and suddenly, too. One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I went in to get him up from his nap. He of course had a paci in his mouth and one in his hand. I jokingly said, “Get that thing out of your mouth. You don’t need that paci! Let’s throw it away. Do you want to throw it away?”

Imagine my surprise when he said, “Uh-huh.”

We went back and forth on it for a bit, and he changed his mind once. But then he went back to saying he wanted to throw it away, so I decided just to go with it. He handed me all three of his pacis, and then I got him out of his bed and handed them back to him, saying, “Go throw them away, Buddy!”

He went to his hamper first, but I guided him to the trashcan next to his dresser instead. He didn’t hesitate one bit; he threw the pacis right in. I was so proud of him.

Of course I had no idea what would happen that night. I filled Kenny in when he got home from work, and he was all for giving it a try. So we did. I put Rory to bed that night and didn’t mention the paci at all while we were reading books. He looked around for it a couple of times, but I just ignored him and kept on reading.

The true test came when I put him in his bed. He immediately felt around for a paci and when he didn’t find one, he lifted his head up, confused. I decided to remind him what we had done earlier that day after his nap. “We threw them away, Buddy, remember? After your nap? We threw all of your pacis away. You don’t need them anymore. You’re a big boy, just like Riley. Riley doesn’t use a paci anymore either.”

I wasn’t sure if he would be okay with it, but he eventually laid his head back down. I was certain I would have to go back into his room on account of him screaming, but we didn’t hear a peep out of him the rest of the night. He did wake up unhappy just before 6am, but he got past that very quickly.

With the way our schedule was, Rory did not get a nap over the next few days. So that meant he was pretty tired when he finally got into bed at night. However, I don’t think it really mattered what his tiredness level was; he was just fine without his paci.

I still can’t believe it happened the way it did. Kenny and I hadn’t planned this at all; it was such a spontaneous moment. But it worked!

I do still have a few pacis stashed in his dresser, but I have no plans to pull them out. He’s truly over it. So crazy to think about. Before I know it, he’ll be potty trained too and we won’t have diapers in the house anymore either!

I am SO ready for that.