Baby Steps to Rid the Pacifier

Here is a list of reasons why the pacifier has got to go!

1. She is really growing up and big girls do not have pacifiers. This is definitely something I notice when I see newborns in the store with a pacifier. The pacifier is huge on the newborn and super tiny on my one and a half year old daughter's mouth!!  She doesn't use a bottle anymore so she shouldn't have a pacifier. (I mean, come on, I let her carry around her two blankies, pillow, and stuffed animal baby!)
2. She talks with the pacifier in her mouth. I can barely understand her as is! I do not need a muffler.
3. Her little girly lips are too cute to hide! Mommy wants to see that pretty smiley face.
4. She whines about her pacifier mid-conversation usually when it's in her hand OR MOUTH STILL! She whines,... pacie, pacie, pacie... Obnoxious.
5. She loses her pacifier a lot. Then will whine some more about it.
6. She uses two pacifiers at once. Not all the time... but enough times to add it to the list. She is definitely a silly one.

I've been thinking about taking away the pacifier for quite some time now. Last night after listening to her whine about her pacie and talk with it in her mouth for a good half hour, I was over it! She set her two pacifiers down and went to grab some books. Guess what I did? I snuck over and stole them. Then I hid them!! Muahahahaa!

Shortly after, she started whining about her pacie again.
I told her, "PACIE GO BUH BYE. PACIE ALL GONE."

You'd think she would have started to cry... but no! She simply repeated what I said, "Pacie go buh bye. Pacie Allllll goooonnnnnnnnnnne." She said it so stinkin' cute and then returned to playing with her toys.

Once again, she asked, "Pacie?"
I repeated, "Pacie go buh bye. Pacie all gone!" And she just waved buh bye and said,"Pacie alllll goonnnnnee!"

No whining. No crying. She returned to playing with her toys AGAIN.

I have been repeating this over and over for 24 hours now. She did not need the pacifier for naptime yesterday, bedtime, and naptime again today. She did GREAT!

Today, I also stole my mom's secret pacie stash at her house and told her my apparently super mean plan to rid the pacifier. I only halfway have her support. Regardless, I'm on a mission. I hope it works!!

Briefing on the baby steps to rid the pacifier:

1. Steal the pacifier when the toddler is not looking.
2. Hide it.
3. Tell the toddler that the pacifier has gone bye bye
4. Continuously repeat step 4
5. Pray for the best & don't let yourself feel guilty!

I will let you know if my plan works permanently in time! :)
Best of luck to you!

Update: This method worked 100% and there was no fall-back-to-the-paci moments. It was like she never had it.

Where Did She Learn That?!?!

My little Miss A is 19 months old. Don't ask me where the time has gone because I could not even begin to tell you!

Over the past couple weeks, Miss A has been blabbering her little heart out. She repeats everything I say and do. If I am randomly singing, she will randomly sing. If I drop something on the floor and say "shoot!", she will say "uh oh!" or her new thing is "Paci go boom!" When she does repeat me and say "shoot"... boy does it sound like "sh*t". yikesee!

I caught her reading a book on colors a few days ago. She would point to the page and say "Reeedddd... *turn page* Blueeeeee...." I almost had a heart attack. Where did she learn that?!?! I had read that book to her several times in the past, but I had no clue she was actually learning. CRAZY. Another thing she learned from a book is the noise a tractor makes... I always read over the tractor part quickly because it didn't tie in to the rest of the book on animal sounds. "The tractor goes BRRmm BRrmm!" Just recently, she saw a picture of a tractor and said "BRRmm BrRmm!" CRAZY.

She also knows so much vocabulary that I never taught her. She doesn't go to a daycare so all her knowledge comes from listening to our families and us talking to her. She says something to surprise me everyday. It also seems like I only have to tell her something once and she gets it. She knows the difference between head, forehead, elbow, knees, legs, teeth, tongue, eyes, eyebrows, mouth, nose, ears, hair, beauty mark, toes, etc.... She is so stinking smart. I guess I thought year and a half old babies took a LONG time to learn. I remember thinking "how am I ever going to teach her the difference between a head and a forehead!?" Guess it doesn't matter now.

So watch out! You may not think your child is listening or understanding you but WHOAA do they catch you by surprise! THEY ARE SMART LITTLE HUMANS!!

Edit: You may or may not have been thinking I was going to write about some naughty words, she has said. Fortunately, she does not have a potty mouth yet! Thank god for that.