What I'm doing right now...

.... Is listening to a very sad and tired Eliza cry it out while rolling on the ground in her room. Poor girl.

See, it all started with a little newborn sucking on just one little pacifier.

Three years, 2 months, and ~5 days later, we took away all the pacifiers. She did pretty well the first two days at my house, besides a rough night of waking up every few hours and crying. But she was happily announcing to people, "No more ba-ba's!" (Babas were what she called her pacifiers).

Now she's just sad ... and GRUMPY! and does NOT want to take a nap. And has a hand or finger in her mouth constantly when she starts getting tired.

Baba Withdrawals is what we're experiencing here, folks!

So all those reassuring stories we heard along the way- puh! Oh how deceiving!

"I just told my daughter that the paci fairy came and took away all the pacifiers. She asked for it once and then never again!"

"I helped my child collect all the paci's and then we threw them away. They were fine after that!" or "There was a little crying here and there, but not anything big."

"We just cut a little bit off the pacifier every night until there was hardly anything left. Then he just stopped asking for it after a while!"

Well, good for you! Spread your fiction and picture perfect stories to other "suckers," why don't you! I, however, prefer honesty!

We'll add this experience as another chapter of the book, "Things they never tell you about parenting because otherwise you'd never have Kids!"

Anyways, I'm trying to dole out lots of validation and reassurance! Praying for patience and for the withdrawal stage to break! It'll come, right? I mean, people eventually overcome opium addictions, so SURELY this too shall pass as well right?

Oh, and yes, I packed up Eliza's baba's into a box, and she wants to ship them to her new baby girl cousin! ... AND she hasn't asked for it at all since the first day. She knows that pacifiers are for babies and not big girls and that it's hurting her teeth.

And yet, she's still rolling on the floor crying. I'd post a picture, but I think that someone would report me for cruelty to 3 yr olds.

Sorry, Eliza, no one but me can hear your screams from the basement...

p.s. Steve's on board with this whole plan too... in case you're concerned.

p.p.s. Please don't leave any comments about how cruel I am-- I already feel it enough on my own. I'd be happy to let Eliza have a pacifier until she's 41 yrs. old if it wouldn't mess up her mouth and reek havoc on any chance of her ever having a social life!