"paci, all gone!"

so this weekend was one to mark in the baby book--we took away m's pacis. we've been putting it off for months, did the whole only at nap and bedtime thing, but we always found an excuse to not push through and take it away. plus she's just so darn cute with her paci in her mouth when she's going to sleep and when she first wakes up. but it had to be done.

so we talked to her about it and got up saturday morning and talked about it some more, which she received with big, serious eyes. then we went to build a bear and let her pick out her animal (quite the deliberation!) and we put her last three pacis into the bear before it was stuffed. she was a little scared of pushing the stuffing pedal, but she was definitely aware of what was going on. she was so serious--just precious! when we finished and walked out, we talked to her about it again, and she said "paci, all gone! my tebby bear, paci all gone." yep, definitely got it. :) all in all, she's done really well. there were big tears before her nap on saturday, and 10-15 minutes of crying to soothe herself to sleep saturday night and sunday, but we're so proud of her. d said that last night she didn't even ask for it before he put her to bed. yay m!!! i told d it makes me feel like we took a little piece of her childhood away, but i know it's best. i wish i could bottle her up right now and keep a piece of her preciousness to have forever. i just love this age and i swear she's the cutest little 2 year old around. obviously i'm partial, but still. :)

this week is going to be hard because it's the first time i've been away from her in 6 weeks. dropping her off yesterday before i came back up to cinci was HARD, and i might have shed a few tears. d called me last night and we had our weekly, sometimes daily, conversation of "we're so over this living situation". we are so ready to live under one roof again and stop the madness of crna school. 8 more months!!! we can do it, we'll just keep pushing forward like we've been. i am so proud of us.