Operation: Bury Paci

Yeah, yeah - it took us a while to get rid of the pacifier, but whatever.  It just never seemed like a good time to do it - we either had this or that going on or coming up or we had another transition in the pike (like swithcing to his new room/bed).  We didn't want to get rid of it before Capitola so we decided to do it the next weekend.  Which was today.  I was sooo nervous!  We had been telling Aaden all week that his paci would be going bye-bye at the end of the week and we kept reminding him that he was a big boy and pacis are only for babies.  We decided to bury it in our backyard which we thought was a good idea so that he would actually see it go away and be able to say goodbye to it (Michael and Jenny did this with their kids).

Aaden was all about helping Daddy dig the hole and willingly threw his pacifiers in there and helped Daddy cover them back up and said goodbye to them.  No tears or anything.

 

 We took him for a bike ride after to distract him.

 

 

 

 

Then we went to dinner with Aaron's parents for Allan's birthday.  And after that we went to Aunt Krissie's for a visit which I think worked out great because I think if we would have been at home all evening by ourselves he would have been looking for the paci. 

On our way home, he was tired and he started asking for it, he was saying in the sweetest most pathetic voice, "peas, peas" and rubbing his chest (please in sign language) - it was kind of heart-breaking.  But we just reminded him that we buried it.  And he nodded his head.  We got home and gave him his milk and I thought he would fall asleep (I was hoping he would), but he didn't.  He then requested to go "nigh nigh" and so we put him to bed with no paci and he fell right asleep!!  I couldn't BELIEVE it!

Update - he slept most of the night until 5am and then I heard him get up.  I met him in the hallway and he said "peas" and I just had to remind him again that we didn't have any.  He came and slept a couple more hours in our bed with us.  The rest of Saturday asked for it just a couple times but we just kept reminding him that we buried it.  He seemed fine with that and would carry on.  That night - he was sick.  He didn't feel good and was in bed with us and was restless all night.  I was really surprised that he didn't ask for it at all.  I found myself wanting to give it to him that night to comfort him.  I realized that it's been such a natural reaction for the last two years for me to give it to him.  Guess I have to be broken of the paci too!
On Sunday he didn't ask for it at all.  And he did really well.  On Monday morning, when I took him into daycare he looked up to his cubby (where they used to be kept) and kind of asked for it and then immediately dug in the pocket of his diaper bag looking for one.  I just had to remind him once more that we buried them, he accepted and then ran off to play.   
By the next week, paci has totally been forgotten!  It was waay easier than I thought it would be and he did so well with the transition.  Very proud of him!