Saying goodbye to the paci

See this image?

This is no more.

We (and Broderick) finally decided to get rid of his sut (paci). He's 3 1/2 years old, so I think he's old enough. You know, before he's got buck teeth and needs years of orthodontal work. I never thought MY kid would still have a paci at this age. (I thought a lot of things about kids before I actually had them though.) He didn't use it a lot, only to sleep. But ... it was so convenient ... so I blame me as much as I do Broderick - he LOVED his sut. I loved knowing that no matter where we were - home, airplanes, hotels, etc - if he had it, he would fall asleep. Loved having that.

Here in Denmark when you stop using your pacifier, they have 2 traditions. Either you put it in an envelope and mail it to Santa Claus or you hang them from a sut trae (pacifier tree). They have real trees where they do this and they are covered in pacifiers, but our dentists office has a fake tree.

We went to the dentist's office today and hung his pacifiers on the "sut trae". You put all your pacis in a bag and they put your name and age on it and hang them on the tree. Then they let him pick a "prize" and gave him a diploma. Before we went there, I asked him if he wanted his sut one last time.

He said, "No mommy, I don't need it." I was so proud of him.

Then he bashed his head on the car door and starting bawling. And then he wanted his sut.

But only for a minute, and then he said again, "NO mommy, I'm all done with this." Hanging it on the "tree"in the office. What a big boy. His diploma for graduating from using a pacifier.

And he went to sleep tonight with no crying. He said he was sad, but that was it.

I think he'll be ok, he still has his blanket.