We are a pacifier family.  We offered both of our kids pacifiers and they both took to it like fish to water.  But, like fish, they need water to live, and our kids needed their pacifiers otherwise sleeping and security were out of the question (Gigi called her pacifiers Suckers and Jude came up with the term “Ee-ya” though we have no idea where that came from).  Gigi was a toughie.   We got to a few months before Jude was born and we weaned her off of it using the story of the fairy who comes in the middle of the night and trades old pacifiers for a new toy.  She takes the old ones, refurbishes them and gives them out to new babies who need them while the older, now a pacifier-free child, is excited to find the new toy and thinks it an even trade.  But Gigi hated the “Sucker Fairy” and even though she had given them up by her own choice desperately sought out new suckers and almost instantly regretted trading her suckers in for that Polly Pocket toy.  Then, when Jude arrived, she saw his pacifier and longed for one of her own.  It took little time before she had the habit back, worse than ever, and it took until she was in first grade to finally pry that thing out of her mouth.  But sigh.  It was done.

We have been tentatively tiptoeing around the idea of giving up the pacifier with Jude.  We didn’t want to scar him or force him or do anything that would otherwise make him freak out like she did.  A few weeks before his birthday we told him he could ONLY have the ee-ya at night.  ONLY.  He tried to sneak it, but we were strict and pretty soon it didn’t seem to bother him that he was not using ee-ya at all during the day.

We told him the story of the Ee-ya fairy and something stuck because last night, out of the blue, he said to me, “Mama, I all done Ee-ya.  Madwynn and Asser tan hab dem.”

I was shocked.  “Are you sure, Buddy?  Once Ee-ya Fairy comes they will be gone forever and they won’t come back.”  I decided not to make that mistake twice so I wanted him to be absolutley clear about what would happen once the fairy came.

“Yes, Mama, I hate dem now.  Madwynn an Asser tan hab dem.  I don need dem no more.”  And that was that.  He walked outside and started talking to the stars, telling them the same thing he told me, though this time he was speaking to the Ee-ya Fairy.  He told her that he is big now and not scared.  That he can sleep without ee-ya and that the Ee-ya Fairy needs to come and take them tonight to give them to Madeline and Asher.  That he wants Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and a Super Hero in trade for the pacifiers.  Then he came in and told me that, “See (she) knows now, Mama.  See (she) toming tonight.”  And off he went to his sleepover in his sister’s room.

 

I expected tears, once the time came for him to actually close his eyes and let sleep take him, but that never happened.  Instead, we all fell asleep and in the morning he found his ee-yas missing and in their place a new Captain America figure (because he is a boy he has figures, not dolls, according to the toy industry.  I find that amusing).

So these pictures are all that remain of Baby Boy Jude.  I guess it really is time that we peel off that baby sticker who sports Mickey ears on the back of our car sticker family and we need to replace it with a boy.  I’m not going to miss the ee-ya, but I sure am going to miss having a baby.

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