Bye, bye, Paci... Bye, bye, sleep

Eliza has been pacifier free for 7 days...

My little Eliza has been quite addicted to her pacifier since she was one month old. She loves it. Well, she recently started to chew on them. This made them wear out faster and I've been throwing them away at a rate of about one a day. She had many pacifiers in many colors to start with. A week ago she handed me her paci because it was so chewed up she didn't like it anymore. I examined it and determined it was unsafe and threw it away. Eliza was fine with it. She simply asked me for another one. I told her that was her last paci and that all her pacies broke and have been thrown away. She sadly replied, "Oh."

Most of our trouble is at night. She has always had her paci to suck on and soothe her to sleep. She has a lot of trouble going to bed without it. Every night this week she has gotten out of bed repeatedly for up to two hours. It can get a little frustrating but I understand she is having trouble getting by with out her pacifier. She randomly asks me for her paci now and then. I remind her that they all broke and have been thrown away. She accepts this fact surprisingly well (during the day). But just to be sure she will go through the pacies one by one...

Eliza: "I need my blue paci."
Mommy (in a sympathetic tone): "Remember, it broke and we had to throw it away."
Eliza: "Where's my pink one?"
Mommy: "It broke too."
Eliza: "I want my yellow paci."
Mommy: "We had to throw it away when you chewed it up and it broke."

The conversation repeats itself as she goes through all the colors. When she runs out of colors she will simply suggest we get new ones. Now she is improvising. Check out this very short montage:

I pretended to eat the mushroom (just like we pretend to eat all her play food) and she was so upset... "Oh no, Mommy, don't eat my paci!"

Growing up is so hard...