I've created a monster!!!

I have created a monster. A paci monster to be exact. Let me start from the beginning...

Handley never really cared much for a pacifier. During her first few months of life she would occasionally take one, but just kind of here and there. Then when she was around 3 months old she totally gave it up, spit it out if I tried to give it to her, and moved on to other comfort items (her beloved Lambie).

Over the past 6 months or so she's really started to notice that several of her friends have pacis (or binky's as they call them). When we are at their houses she'll seek out their binky, walk right up to them, and put it in their mouths. Occasionally she's tried putting it in her mouth to see what all the hype is about. I'm sure she is thinking, "well maybe they taste good if my friends like them so much." She quickly pulls it out and moves on to playing with something else.

The past few weeks when I've been watching Noah, Handley has been ALL about his paci. From the moment he arrives in the morning, until his mom picks him up in the evening she wants to carry it around for him, put it back in his mouth if it falls out, take it from room to room with us, and give it to him even if he's drinking his bottle. It's really cute that she's so attentive to his needs and wants to keep him happy.

Well this morning I was going through some old baby stuff and organizing some things in Harper's nursery. I came across a stash of pacifiers. Several of them were ones I'd received as a free sample or as part of a shower gift. There were about 5 total that I knew I wouldn't be using with Harper so I thought Handley might enjoy playing with them and pretending to give them to her baby dolls. I showed them to her and immediately she went into obsession mode! She started carrying all of them around, along with 2 or 3 of her baby dolls, the baby's bottles, 2 of her Lambies and a blanket for baby. If we went into another room, ALL of that stuff came with us. When we'd go from upstairs to downstairs, ALL of it came with us. I finally convinced her to put it all in a little bag to carry, making it much easier on her.

Then it was time for us to leave the house. She REALLY wanted to bring all of it with us, but I told her she could bring 1 paci and 1 baby. You'd think she were picking out her engagement ring or something. She could NOT decide which one to bring. She'd pick one up, start to walk towards the door, change her mind and head back to the pile and trade it for another one. This continued until she'd picked up each of them at least once and I was getting very impatient. She finally decided on a blue and green one. Finally!

When we arrived at Target, she REALLY wanted to bring baby and paci in with us. Normally she is really good about leaving her Lambie or other toys in the car. I decided that it wasn't worth the melt-down, so I let her. Our next stop was Babies-R-Us and again she almost had a melt-down when I suggested leaving them in the car, so again she brought them in with us. While in Babies-R-Us she saw me returning the BPA bottles for non-BPA bottles. Not a big deal except that those BPA bottles were the ones she's been using as "toy bottles" for her babies for the past 6 months. I promised her different bottles and was able to find a cheap 3-pack that would be perfect baby-doll bottles. On to our next stop...lunch with our friend Jen!

This time I really did not want to bring baby and paci out of the car because it was going to be way to messy to have them while she ate. She turned on the water-works, real tears and all, trying to convince me to let her bring them with her. Luckily, Jen arrived about that time and Handley was so happy to see her that she totally forgot about her baby and paci.

When we got back home she went right back to carrying all the pacis, babies, blankets, etc. around for the rest of the afternoon. It was really nice here today so we took a walk to the playground. I let her bring 1 baby and 1 paci. This time she didn't have such a hard time deciding and settled on a UGA one. I was interested to see what she'd do when we got to the playground and should have known that leaving baby and paci in the stroller would NOT be an option. The funniest part about the playground experience was that she kept up with her friends, swinging, sliding, climbing through the tunnels, etc. all while holding baby, paci, and Lambie. Impressive!

Just before her bath tonight she carried everything into the bathroom and just assumed that she would get to take a bath with baby and all the pacis. When I told her they couldn't get wet and that she needed to leave them on the counter you would have thought her best friend just moved away. She cried the entire bath. Then I KNEW she'd want to sleep with them, but to be honest, she sleeps with enough already and I didn't want to start another habit, so I told her they would have to wait in the bag until the morning. That didn't make her happy, but she eventually calmed down and went to sleep. Whew!!!! What a day. I'm eager to see how tomorrow goes, but I have a feeling it's going to be more of the same. What's so funny to me is that she doesn't even like a paci...she just wants to carry them around for her baby doll. I think one thing is certain though, little miss Harper isn't going to stand a chance of not liking a paci. :-)