Pacis and Potty Training

This summer I decided it would be a good idea to set a date for kissing the paci good-bye and also for potty training camp. (Insert laughter from more experienced parents who know you sometimes can't dictate when your children are going to do these things...) Well, I had decided the week of August 19th would be when we would stop paci use. We were only letting him use his paci for bedtime and naptime, but I had noticed that he would have a pretty significant meltdown if we were somewhere and he was tired but we had no paci. He seemed a little too dependent on it, and we thought it would be best for him to start learning how to live life without it. I didn't want to do this cold turkey because I thought he would be confused and wonder why we were doing this to him, so I found a method online that was supposed to work over the course of about a week. You progressively cut off more and more of their paci, and as it stops giving them pleasure they are just supposed to lose interest. This actually worked really well. It was both a little amusing and also a little heartbreaking when Charlie looked at me and said, "It's broke, Mommy. Fix it." He never really cried about it, he was just concerned. He did ask if we could get a new paci, and I just told him that he was a big boy now and didn't need one. Once the paci was basically just the plastic part, we put that in the pocket of his dog Noer for safe keeping. When he would ask about his paci at nap or at nighttime we would just remind him that Noer was keeping it safe for him. A few times when he was upset over something he tried to put the stub in his mouth, but I didn't mind that. Periodically when he asks about a paci (such as when we buy Henry a new pack), we just remind him he's a big boy and that seems to satisfy him.

Potty camp was set for August 26-28 when Henry had his time at Granana and Gammer's house. He wasn't interested. At all. I forgot to factor that into the whole potty training business.... Anyway, if he shows interest again I'll go with it, even if it's really inconvenient timing. Lesson learned.