The Pacifier

The Pacifier.

At the current moment this little device known as the pacifier consumes our life.  We are constantly asking the questions...

"Do you have the pacifier"

"Do you know where the pacifier is?"

"Eli where is your pacifier?"

"Where is the @%#@^$ pacifier?"

While simultaneously searching through piles of toys, the trash can, under couches and car seats - trying to find the beloved pacifier to keep Eli from screaming his head off.

If someone had told me that the pacifier would one day control my everyday life - as it does now, I would have definitely thought twice before giving it to Eli.

But it worked so well when he was a baby - he would not cry, he would sleep - it was the magic to keeping our sanity!  Now with Eli older, keeping a pacifier in his possession is about the most difficult thing to do - Eli likes to hide it in his toys or in the kitchen drawers, throws it in the trash can (where I am sure most of them have ended up) and when he gets excited he throws it out of his mouth and only "sometimes" can we then locate it.  I don't want to even think of how many we have purchased or the amount of money we have spent on pacifiers, but bottom line The Pacifier consumes our lives and last night we hit rock bottom. 

It was time to put Eli down for bed and what were we missing - The Pacifier...

We starting looking everywhere, trying to recap what we did when we got home, retracing every step, but never could find the pacifier - oh and the worst of it was - that was the last one!  Yep, we had managed to lose every single pacifier we have ever purchased for Eli.  There were NO backups...

So I went on a whim and was like...

"Tonight is the night.  Eli is just going to have to figure it out without the pacifier.  I am sick of this thing consuming my life."

So we did it, we put Eli to bed without his pacifier, and...

HE FELL ASLEEP - Yeah!

In the back of mind though I was thinking,

"What happens if he wakes up in the middle of the night, like he always does and we have no pacifier for him...?"

Instead of concentrating on that little dilemma, Matt and I went to bed...

Only to be woken up by Eli's screaming around midnight and what did he want - a pacifier - and nothing  else would console him - nothing!

So again, everyone in the house began searching for a pacifier, but after 20 or so minutes of him screaming and still no sign of a pacifier, we were forced to do it...

Matt went to the store.  At midnight.  To buy a pacifier - otherwise there was no sleep for anyone!

How sad is that, and how embarrassing to walk into Walmart and have to buy pacifiers in the middle of the night because our 18 month old cannot sleep without it.

WOW! do we have some work cut for ourselves!

Needless to say we got through last night and Eli slept soundly until 7am this morning with his pacifier, but still...Matt had to leave, at midnight, in a snow storm, in freezing cold weather to BUY a pacifier!

The Pacifier.

It consumes our life.