a goodbye to the pacifier

I will be truthful and admit that it's 10am and I'm still in my pajamas. It's so cloudy outside that I am not the least bit motivated to put in the work of hair and makeup and clothes. We had a long night.

Let's just say, today marks the day of NO MORE PACIFIER.

I didn't have anything against the pacifier when Graeme was born. I myself sucked on my finger until I was ten years old, and I knew I didn't want that for him. At least the paci isn't connected to him and could be taken away. My only feelings towards it were:

1. He's not using it past his first birthday, and hopefully not even that long.
2. If it becomes more trouble than it's worth, it's gone.

Well, friends, the day has come when it is indeed more trouble than it's worth. It's not been an issue until the past few days. He would use it to fall asleep, spit it out, and not care about it anymore. He was sleeping fine, and I didn't mind that he used the pacifier to soothe himself to sleep. Well, for the past few days and, unfortunately, nights, he has woken up and needed it back way too much. Of course he can't find it and put it back in his mouth, so I was having to give it back to him during naps, and more annoyingly and exhaustingly, every couple hours at night. 

All that to say, we are quitting cold turkey. He's only three-months-old, so he can only protest for a few days, I'm hoping. Then, we will all get some better sleep around here! We have decided to cut it out almost completely, probably only saving it for "social situations" if we are desperate. (i.e. we might resort to it in a restaurant or an airplane as to not make too many people hate us.)

I don't regret using the pacifier for the first three months, but I think it's definitely time to wean from it. From what I've read on the "all-knowing" internet, most people were paci-free and sleeping great after a few days.

I talked to Graeme about it this morning when he woke up for the day. He smiled a lot while I was talking and seemed to agree that this would be best, but I told him I thought he might feel differently when it came time for naps and bed. 

So far, he's gone down for two naps today with ten minutes of fussing before he fell asleep. Not too shabby. We shall see what bedtime brings. Prayers appreciated.

Bye, bye pacifier!

In other, more fun, news:  we had two firsts this past week.

1. Aaron had his first Father's Day.  Like Mother's Day, we celebrated a day early. We gave Aaron his cards and presents on Saturday. I offered to take him out to dinner or lunch, but he said he wanted to cook. I said I would cook him anything, but he said, no, he wanted to cook. I thought that might make me look lazy on Father's Day, but who was I to argue? He made an amazing dinner from Gordon Ramsey's cookbook. I told him that he was going to have to cook more often. 
2. We took Graeme to the pool for the first time. I grew up swimming all of the time, and I love the water. Pool. Ocean. Maybe not slimy lakes and ponds. Aaron likes the water fine, but he's not as keen to stay in as long as I am usually. I am hoping that Graeme is a water baby. I am so excited for next summer when he and I can go to the pool all the time. This year, since he can't be in the sun too much, we waited until the water was really warm and took him to my parents' pool that is in the shade in the evening. Graeme didn't cry at all in the water, although he did look a little puzzled at first. Before long, he was floating around like a champ.