So as I said in the previous post, last Monday night, Kaitlyn's pink paci got run over in the street and destroyed. The ironic part of this story is that early in the day last Monday, the "Paci Fairy" paid Kaitlyn a visit with a note that she could no longer have paci in the car and gave her a bag of goodies to entertain her while she rode including a new DVD, some cool balloon suckers and some ring pops (now nicknamed Paci Suckers).
Now back to the story. Usually she isn't allowed to take her paci outside, but she took a very late nap and I couldn't get her to wake up so I just picked her up with her paci and blankie, plopped her in the stroller and Jeff and I headed out for a walk. By the end of the trip she was wide awake and wanted to run home. So we stopped walking and let her get out of the stroller and she and Jeff raced home. Apparently, pink paci fell out of the stroller as she climbed out and we didn't know it. A while late when I went to empty the stroller, I found her blankie and no paci. Jeff and Kaitlyn walked down the street a ways to see if they couldn't find it but had no luck. So we hopped in the van and went on a paci hunt. It didn't take long for us to spot it in the middle of the road. I don't think I'll ever forget the pit I felt in my stomach when Jeff showed it to me after stepping back into the car. We both remembered seeing a red convertible swerve to the center of the road to give us lots of room while we walked and we are assuming that was the culprit vehicle. We slowly broke the news to Kaitlyn - pink paci was broken. Actually - the paci was still "suckable" but it was far from up to Kaitlyn's standards of perfection. (For the last 8 months of so Kaitlyn has been super picky and although she has 4 of 5 other pacis, she would only suck on the pink one.) Jeff first tried to glue some of the broken plastic pieces together. Next he attempted to weld the pieces together, however the flame left black marks on the back of the paci and Kaitlyn refused to put it in her mouth. So we were left scrambling. Kaitlyn was pretty shaken up but not yet distraught - no tears had fallen - she just really wanted "Daddy to fix it!"
My master plan was to give her about 4 to 6 weeks more with the paci at nap and bedtime, so next we headed to Walgreens to find Kaitlyn a new pink paci, since pink was the only color that she would put in her mouth - silly girl! It was none other than a miracle that we found one package left of the pacifiers that she likes and guess what colors they were - pink and purple. Perfect. But as I had suspected, she didn't like the smell of the new paci so she wouldn't put it in her mouth. So .... by 9pm we had given up on the fact that she would ever use her pink paci again and we decided that we were done with pacis. I brought out the "Paci Fairy" prize that I had bought months ago and just stashed in the closet for when I had the courage to actually take her paci away for good. That changed Kaitlyn's mood from gloom to giddyness as she unwrapped a handful of Diego themed gifts. And I sipped a Diet Coke and swallowed hard realizing that it was going to be a long night. But actually - she did SO much better than I could have ever expected. She never cried or sobbed as I had pictured in my mind when I day-dreamed about that day. Instead she whimpered and curled up into a ball, experimented with sucking on different fingers and snuggled lots with me. After three movies, dozens of books, 3 or 4 juice boxes and lots of snuggles, Kaitlyn finally fell asleep on the living room floor at 1am and there she (we) slept till 745am. I woke up each hour just long enough to Praise the Lord that she was still asleep and not sobbing in desperation. Its been a week now and each day has gotten a little easier. She skipped naps most of the week but that is understandable. I still can hardly believe that pink paci is gone and I won't have to think about the "Paci Fairy" again for a couple years. I think reality will hit in a few weeks and then I will just be elated when I reflect on how awesome God's timing was in this even and how fantastic my little princess handled losing something she thoroughly adored. And the funniest part of the whole deal is that she still goes to bed with a blue paci in her hand, but she never puts it in her mouth.
The rescue attempt: Jeff attempting to weld the pink paci back together.
Kaitlyn with her "grand prize" from the Paci Fairy after we realized that she would never suck her beloved "pinkie" again.
Kailtyn modeling one of the items in her prize box.
The morning after with her new Diego doll and a her "Baby Bottle" - a cute little candy bottle that I found to help satisfy her need to suck.
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