Major announcement, we are 100% completely and utterly pacifier-free! We were a bit fearful of the withdrawal and tears that would result from taking away our precious comfort item but it was time, really. I used a little trick I read about online, which required cutting off the nipple part so that he could still hold the stub of the pacifier between his teeth but it was unsuckable and would just fall out. The first time I gave it to him he was like 'what the...?' and looked at me and said 'uh-oh!' so I played along and said 'oh no, it's broken! I don't know how this happened, let's try a different one' (which was also nipple-less) and thereby convinced him that all his pacifiers were unexpectedly damaged and he'd just have to do without them.
All it required after that was one awful naptime where Elliot cried and cried and began to hyperventilate a little before we finally gave him a real one despite our decision to 'stick to our guns'. We thought that night would bring more tears since we gave in but we thought, let's let him cry about it for a bit and see what happens. But he didn't cry at all that night! The couple of days after that were a bit cranky but he's basically gotten over it and moved on with his life.
Speaking of which, potty training is going pretty well, thanks to papa Josh for his patience and clever tactics!
In other updates, Elliot eats kale! Ok, it's in homemade chip form, so most of the nutritious elements have perished, but still, it's kale!! AND he likes to snack on raw carrot sticks these days! Like a true organic baby making his Health Counseling mama proud :)
