Natural Progression

Charlie accomplished quite a goal this week by giving up his pacifier! Strange how it all happened, but on Thursday night about 30 minutes after Charlie went to bed, I looked over and saw his one and only pacifier left on the counter - oops! Completely not on purpose, his pacifier got left there after he took it out of the crib after his nap earlier in the day. Anyway, since he was still doing his normal nighttime talking routine, Matt and I decided to let it go and see what happened. Another 30 minutes went by and by then all talking had ceased. Charlie simply fell asleep without his pacifier.

On Friday morning, I gave him lots of encouragement and praise! Knowing that nap time would be a different situation, I was prepared for a small battle; one that I would inevitably win. Sure enough, there were a few tears at nap time. When I put Charlie in the crib, he was a bit upset anyway because he wanted to keep playing, so the first few tears were because of that. I'm positive that the next ones were due to his desire for the pacifier. After 10 minutes of crying, I went in, picked him up and he snuggled into my shoulder (precious!!). I rubbed his back and tried to transition him back to the crib after a few minutes. I nestled him into his blankets (you didn't think I took those away did you? I'm not THAT mean!!) and rubbed his back for about 5 more minutes before his baby blues eventually drifted shut. He slept an hour and a half and woke up just like he normally would.

And that was it. No tantrums, no up-in-the-night crying, nothing. I was expecting much more of a fight about it. Apparently I underestimated Charlie's ability to give it up! (Maybe next time I'll estimate him. (an Office quote. had to.)) At 22 months to the day, Charlie is no longer using a pacifier. I can't tell you how proud I am of him! There was a short moment when I was consoling him during Friday's nap where I wanted to cave and give it to him; not because he was throwing such a fit about it but because he genuinely looked sad about it. However, at that point, we were commited. And here we are on the other side and doing just fine. Bed time last night went great - not a peep because he was so tired! - and nap time today (Saturday) was just as smooth (not a single peep).

As a reward, we took Charlie out for his first ice cream cone at Dairy Queen last night. Obviously, he's had ice cream before, but last night, we gave him the whole cone (after Matt scooped out some of the ice cream so it was more manageable). He was so excited about it and ate the whole thing, including the leftover ice cream in the dish. I'm not sure that he put it together that we were celebrating that he no longer needed a pacifier, but I made sure to tell him a few times to reinforce how proud I am of him.

No more pacifier. A natural progression of life.

(Second picture from the bottom: Charlie had to take time to wave to the passing cars out the window. :)

(Third picture from the bottom: Matt didn't want Charlie to feel bad having ice cream all over his face, so Matt put some on his face, too. Oh, Matt.)