Landon, today was your "belly-button birthday," and of course we had to make it special even though your birthday party was this past weekend. We started the day at "Brownie Park" (that's Brownlee Park to the rest of us), and had a great, although extremely hot, time splashing in the spray park and playing in the sand. Then it was off to lunch at one of your faves, "Mosado's" (Posado's), where you always grub down on their homemade flour tortillas and butter. But the biggest event of the day was one we had all been talking about for weeks, months, before. Today was the day you are finally giving up the pacifier, or "ya-ya," as you named it years ago.
From about your second day of life, you have enjoyed the Nuk pacifier. When you were born, I was so concerned about nursing you and nipple confusion, that I would dare anyone to think about a paci. I even made a little sign for your bassinet in the hospital warning the nurses that you were not to have any artificial nipple. That is until the first night, and ALL you wanted to do was suck! The next morning, JuJu came in dangling the nuk by the handle, and said, "here you go." And the love affair started.
Your second birthday came and went, and the dentist said it would be ok to let you have it until about 2 1/2 or 3 years old. So we continued. And the ya-ya doesn't go alone; no, the "pooh blank" (your classic winnie the pooh green silky blanket) was the peanut butter to jelly, the macaroni to cheese, the milk to cereal-- they just went together. You never had one without the other. Your third birthday came, and of course that was right when Shelby was born, and I couldn't take it from you then. You would certainly link the two events and resent your baby sister forever...I thought. So finally, Daddy and I were firm that the fourth birthday, it had to go. We started prepping you for the separation long before, explaining that you are a big boy now, your teeth would be messed up, the dentist said so, pacis are for babies, blah, blah, blah. You never wanted to hear it. Until I read in a magazine a clever idea. We would take you to Build-A-Bear, where you would create a special friend with all your ya-yas inside! That way, whenever you had the "need" they would still be there, just inside the bear. Perfect. And you were on board!
So this evening we gathered up all the nuks (Shelby uses a different type of pacifier, thank God!)
and loaded them in a ziploc baggie. When you placed the final one in the bag, you took a deep breath and uttered a reluctant, sighing "okay." And we headed down to the Boardwalk. Before we went to Build-A-Bear, we were drawn to an attraction there called Euro Bubbles. Think oversized hamster ball; huge bubbles with a kid inside floating in a pool of water. You had a great time trying to stand up and run inside that thing!
Then it was off to handle the business at hand. You chose a panda bear, and you placed a paci in each paw. We outfitted him in safari duds and created his birth certificate. I think the onlooking grandmothers and Mommy had a much more difficult time watching this ceremonious act! JuJu even asked me if I was sure we wanted to go "cold turkey." But you were so brave and grown-up about the whole thing. It wasn't until we were in the car on the way home, and sleepiness set in, that you had a little meltdown about it. We pumped you up and reassured you, and that night, when you went to bed, you did absolutely amazing! No tears, no begging. It was done. Just
like that.
And here you are, sleeping like an angel without your ya-ya. Sniff sniff.
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