Ditching the paci

I swore my child would never use a pacifier.

I promised myself I'd take it away at six-months - after all, that's when babies learn to self-soothe.

I patted myself on the back when we backed down to sleeping-only at one-year; the monster would toss his beloved pacifier in his crib when we picked him up, and wouldn't ask for it until he was ready for bed.

I didn't want to take it away when we switched to a toddler bed.

And now, at 2.5, I'm finally getting rid of the darn thing.

There are no pacifiers at preschool, so we are making efforts to make Monster Land a paci-free zone. Simply taking it resulted in vomit, so we went back and considered our options. What did we decide?

The Necro-Paci. Night by night, little by little, the paci is dwindling down to nothing. It started when I cut the tip off the pacifier (behind the monster's back). That night he was very confused, and insisted the "brokey paci" stay on the floor. He snatched it up again at some point during the night, but we were off to a start.

Every other night or so - and sometimes nightly - I trim a little more off the pacifier. The Monster always looks at it with confusion when I hand it over at bedtime, but never questions what's happening to it. He's accepted it as simply "brokey paci."

As of tonight he's down to a paltry 1/3-inch of nub attached to a dragonfly base. He's determined to hang on to it, but in another night or two there will be nothing left for even the most determined toddler to hang on to.

Is it too early to say we're in the home stretch?