Passy.

With our visit to the dentist came the life altering news for Lisa that she would soon have to give up the pacifier, a.k.a "passy".  I know most of you are probably thinking, "What?! She still uses a pacifier?!" Yes, she does. The dentist said that it probably is not doing much harm considering over the past year she mostly only has used it for sleeping, but that it would be wise to start weaning her from it. The first day I thought I would do it cold turkey, but that didn't last more than one day. I admit I rely heavily on nap times to give us a couple of hours away from eachother each day, so when she wouldn't take a nap without one I decided we would start by letting her have one at nap, but not at bedtime. The first night she woke up at 1am and 5 am and I layed with her in her bed each time until she fell back asleep. That definitely wasn't going to work for more than one night. The next night I told her I would not be coming in when she woke up and that if it was still dark she needed to try to go back to sleep. She did awesome. She did wake up once and Ryan offered to lay with her, but she said, No! In the morning Ryan woke me to say she'd been playing by herself in her bedroom for an hour! (I had earplugs in so didn't hear any of it) The next night however, she did not go to bed until almost midnight. Our policy has always been that as long as she is in her room at bedtime, we don't care what she does (within reason) because we figure she'll go to sleep when she gets tired enough.  A lot of times she reads and sings songs on the floor by her night light for awhile before she falls asleep. Last night that just went on for about 3 hours more than usual! Sure, there was a little crying and screaming when she would try to come out and we'd tell her to go back, but mostly she was just amusing herself trying to sing her ABCs and peeking out the door. I think she was just waiting for us to go to bed because once we did she settled down a little. Ryan told her to get in her bed when she got tired because that would be more comfy than the floor and she had gotten in her bed by the morning. Hopefully she'll start learning to fall asleep earlier within the next week. Then we'll work on getting rid of the passy for naps too and altogether. Who knows what I will do when the next kid comes. I think the passy has been great to us...I can't count all the hours of strife it has saved us. Road trips, family gatherings, naps, bedtime, you name it. To my knowledge, she never contracted any horrible sicknesses from that nasty dirty thing (face it, kids are going to put gross dirty things in their mouths all day no matter how hard you try. If anything, that pacifier kept her from putting some grosser things in there a lot of the time!) I almost wonder if waiting this long has been easier for us because I have been able to reason with her about why she needs to stop using it and she understands that the dentist told her it can hurt her teeth. Anyway...enough of this novel on the relationship of Lisa and her passy. We will cherish its memory.

Ryan loved it when her smile would show out the sides of the passy. He thought that was so cute.

Ready for the big girl bed? As long as I have my passy!

Easter, 18 months old. I did regret that she was particularly grumpy that day as I knew it would mean that in every picture she would have the passy in her mouth. But I realize now I would much rather have that than screaming and crying and whining the whole time. The moment she climbed up into Grandad's lap is an especially sweet memory. 

Well... the passy used to work when I wanted to do her hair fancy. Not any more. Now she wants treats to let me do her hair. Oh well. Maybe someday she'll let me play again. 

Of course, I don't see how she possibly would have taken a nap at Disneyland without that blessed passy. Thanks for everything, passy.