Alligator Got the Paci

So Ryan and I decided a couple of months ago that Eli's paci was nearing the end of its life in our house.  I've read and heard multiple places that babies lose their sucking instinct around 6 months and after that a paci is just a habit, not something they actually need to soothe themselves.  In addition, logic kept whispering in our ear that it was only going to get harder as he got older.  No matter how hard it is now, it will never get easier, logic told us.  However, Eli's first plane trip was planned for the beginning of July and we certainly weren't brave enough to attack that adventure without a paci.  So our plane trip came and went, then fourth of July in Topeka came and went, and we had very little excuse left to delay the paci's exit.  In fact, we were on a deadline because we knew the paci had to be gone by the time Eli goes back to daycare.  Miss Dawn, bless her, loves Eli so much.  So much in fact, that we knew there was no way she'd put him through the trauma of losing a paci.  So it was now or never. 

Thus came the question - do we take it cold turkey or do we cut the tip off of it therefore rendering the paci pointless and (hopefully) no longer desirable to our sweet Eli.  In a moment of wisdom, Ryan pointed out that Eli will pretty much go with the flow on anything as long as he thinks it's his idea.  (Not our kid at all. Ha.)  In other words, if we 'ruin' the paci then he will (hopefully) throw it aside deciding that he's done with it.  I mean what's the worst that could happen?  He sucks on it anyway and we ultimately have to take it from him?  Seemed like a decent hypothesis to take to the lab.  Here are the results of our experiment... (note - all observation was done through our video monitor :)

Sunday bedtime - Eli sticks the paci in his mouth.  Takes it out and examines (what the heck??).  Sticks it back in.  Takes it out and examines (what happened to this thing??).  Sticks it back in.  Repeat for 5-7 minutes until paci was ultimately tossed over the crib railing and left abandoned in the middle of his room.  Little man rolled around for a while and fell asleep with no issue.

Monday Nap #1 - Mom lays paci in the corner of the crib then lays Eli down.  Eli sticks the paci in his mouth.  Takes it out and examines (oh great, this again).  Sticks it back in and chews on it....like a piece of cud.  Crawls around for a while - gnawing away until, ultimately, the paci meets the same fate - over the railing and onto the carpet.

Monday Nap #2 - Mom lays paci in the corner of the crib then lays Eli down.  Eli plays with his blanket, rolls around, practices his clapping, bangs his head against his crib all before paying any attention to the paci in the corner.  Then, spotting the paci, crawls over to it, promptly chucks it to the middle of the room, plays a bit longer, then falls asleep. 

Many of the same observations occured through Tuesday.  Wednesday morning, Eli had been ignoring the paci long enough that I was pretty confident he wouldn't care if it never showed up again.  And it hasn't.  And he hasn't seemed to miss it.  So, I guess that's that. 

The alligator took a big ol' bite out of Eli's beloved paci, but, luckily, he still has no problem making it to dream land.