Buh Bye Pacifiers

We toyed with all the possibilities in cutting Reilly's tie to his pacifiers. We knew it was going to be pretty tough because he had been sleeping with them for three years (give or take a few months). Shad and I thought that we would tell Reilly that we needed to put them all in a box and bury them in the backyard. We started this discussion a month prior to his 3rd birthday. "When you turn 3 we will put all your paci's in a box and bury them in the backyard", he didn't seem to have a problem with this concept. It was about 2 weeks later we realized Reilly thought he would just dig them up when he needed them, so we altered the story. "When you turn 3 we will put all your paci's in a box and mail them to a little boy in California". Again, it was met with acceptance, however this version of the story was questioned.... "why do I send them to a little boy?"... to which we responded "it's a little boy who needs them and doesn't have any and when you turn 3 you will be a big boy and you don't need them anymore."

When August 12 came, we collected all the paci's we could find and we put them in a special box. Daddy took them to work the next day and mailed them to California. (actually they are probably still on Shad's desk, but he was told never to bring them home again)

The first couple days were tough, and we occassionally have a request, but other than that, the separation was successful.