A Milestone for Nate

This summer Nate gave up his binkie!  Or rather, I took it away.  My friend is adamant that 18 months is the best age to take away the pacifier--she claims they are young enough that it is easier to take it away.  It's like they forget easier about it.  The reasoning sounded great but I wasn't sure I was ready for the challenge.  When we took away Kaitlyn's binkie when she was two we were unprepared for the crazy convulsions she had like a drug addict trying to come clean!

And let's face it--the binkie is fabulous.  Nate was a screamer, seriously high-pitched like you've never heard before.  Plop in the binkie and it stopped immediately.  Could I really get rid of it?

And Nate LOVED his binkie.  I wanted him to have it on our trip to Utah to help him sleep, and I wanted him to have it while my mom was watching him while I did CMT--to keep her sane.

I couldn't imagine it would really be easy. The morning after we dropped my mom off at the airport after CMT was over we came home and I could NOT find that pacifier.  I was sick of looking, and Nate was very tired.  I told him I was sorry but I couldn't find his binkie and he'd have to go to bed without it.  I put him in his bed, sang a song and went searching for the binkie just sure that he'd never go to sleep without it. 

Nate lightly cried for about five minutes and then fell right to sleep.  I found the binkie, but I never gave it back to him.  I seriously could not believe how easy it was! 

It is liberating to be free of pacifier searching! And gratefully, Nathan's vocabulary has exploded and he rarely bursts my eardrums with his shrill scream--just during Sacrament Meeting when he's bored and wants to go out :)  Smart...