Bye Bye Paci

When Lyla was just a little over a month old, we introduced her to her very first paci.
Well, introduced isn't exactly the right word...we basically forced it upon her. She was a bit of a fussy baby and there were many times when we had to do Dr. Karp's 5 S's all at the same time in order to calm her down. Her paci quickly became one of the only things that would fully soothe her.

At Lyla's one year well check up the Dr. told us it was time to say our goodbyes to the beloved paci. We tried the method of cutting back the paci bit by bit. She wasn't fooled at all...after several weeks of that we went to the store for new ones. We decided 2 years would be an easier age for Lyla (and us) to handle the transition. Two came and went...and somewhere in there she decided one paci was not enough and had to have another one. One to suck on an the other to hold in her hand or up to her nose next to the other. We have been slowly weening her from them and for the past year or so she has been allowed to have them only at nap time and bed time. We finally set our sights on the summer of her third year to say our goodbyes.
We just had to figure out how to do it. We wanted Lyla to be involved so we talked to her about the paci fairy and all the different ways we had heard how she could say goodbye. Hanging them in a tree in the yard, planting them in the garden, giving them away to a new baby (which she did for a brand new pack of paci's we had in the cabinet- thanks Iris and Lily for going along with it!), or even having a visit from the paci fairy herself...Lyla finally decided on a fun idea I had read about in a magazine.
This morning was the big day! We headed to the Build a Bear Workshop in the mall and she put her paci's inside a brand new bear! She loved the idea of always having her paci's with her even though she couldn't suck on them anymore.

Getting ready the head to the mall.















Lyla had her heart set on a purple bear.




















Putting her paci's in her new bear.

All of the staff at the Build a Bear Workshop were AMAZING! They were so excited for her and made a really big deal about her becoming a "big girl" today. Amber and I were both teary-eyed at this moment. I think this may have been harder on us then her!














Picking out her bear's new heart.



















Giving her new bear an "air bath"














We are incredibly proud of our big girl! She is napping now for the first time at home without her pacis. So far so good...we will see how tonight goes!