So long soocies!

It's actually pretty funny how many things I have now done as a mom that I vowed I would never do, that is, BEFORE I had children. And I have fully realized how unfair it is to pass any judgment at all on how other parents are doing things, because you really never know what you would actually do, unless you walked in their shoes. I said I would never allow my children to sleep in our bed. (Andrew came in for a cuddle at 3am last night, and needless to say, spent the remainder of the night with me) I said I would never allow the tv to be a babysitter. (everytime I nurse Ryan to sleep, I put on a movie to keep Andrew occupied) And I said that I would not allow a soocy after 3 months, then I said I would not allow a soocy after one year, and then, truthfully, I kinda gave up, became quite complacent with the whole pacifier use thing, with exception to my attempts at keeping the soocy in the bed. The truth is, I really have no regrets on anything thus far, and I am 100% confident that it was that plastic little sucky thing that averted countless tantrums, and allowed for peaceful airplane rides, car rides, adjustments to new places, long restaurant meals, and especially nights. All those parenting books have pretty much gone out the window, and I have found, by far, the best advice comes from fellow moms. One exception, is the Gina Ford Contented Baby book, which was strongly recommended to me by Jane and Bec, and though I didn't buy into all of her ideas, those on establishing a routine have been paramount in developing such a seamless and peaceful schedule with Ryan, something I NEVER had with Andrew.
So...last weekend I was on the phone with Aunty Lo. Andrew came to me and asked if he could go get his soocy. Since it is so rare these days where Lo's schedule coincides with mine for a phone chat, I just nodded my head to him and off he went to go suck! When Lo asked what he wanted, I told her. She then brought up the issue of potential dental problems caused by using a soocy for too long. Honestly, I had never thought of that. I only knew that prolonged thumb-sucking could cause the teeth to grow outward. So when I hung up the phone with her, I googled it, and did find indeed evidence that pacifier use after the first few years of life could be problematic, from a dental stand point. Andrew happened to ask me what I was reading, while I was doing this research. I explained to him that it says on the internet that soocies can cause you to have an ugly smile if you use them when you are a big boy like him. I could tell he was processing this new piece of information, and accepting it. So the next day, while at Marineland, I told him that we better throw out the soocies, so that he doesn't damage his teeth. To my shock and amazement, he accepted this instantly, and told me that he, himself, wanted to put them in the garbage! To make it a little more motivating, I told him that big boys don't get soocies, but they get to play with big boy toys that little babies can't have...so we agreed that he would get an inflatable killer whale for the beach and pool, and Ryan, who still has soocies cuz he is little, cannot have a killer whale yet. Andrew was extremely happy with this notion. And to my amazement, Andrew went to sleep that first night, with not one mention of the soocy, and picked out a new "doudou" (a stuffed animal or blanky or something similar that nearly all French kids attach to). The next day, he told me he wanted to go look at his soocies in the garbage and I explained that I had taken the garbage to the basement and they would be long gone on the truck by now. (of course I still kept a couple in the event that this turned out to be disastrous and would need to revisit when Robert was here!!!) Robert is away now, and I consciously made the decision to take away the soocies while he is gone, knowing full well that he is more of a "softy" than me, and would be more apt to give in than I, if it turned out to be a big struggle!!!
When I told Robert about this new "milestone" the other night (I told him after we had surpassed the three night mark), he was happily surprised, of course, but in the same breath, he was not at all surprised with Andrew's response. We talked about how Andrew responds to things in general, and lucky for us, he generally accepts our answers. For example, if he wants to go on a merry-go-round ride that we are passing by, and I tell him that I have no money, well, that's that. You obviously can't go if you can't pay the man! Or if he's not keen on leaving a playground when it's time to go home, all I have to do is tell him that it is closing. And then he just agrees to come along.
So, in the end, I'm glad that we kept the soocy around for nearly 3.5 years. It made us all happier, and now that he is old enough to rationalize why he shouldn't have them anymore, it was pretty much a walk in the park to say goodbye to them. (despite many people telling me the longer we allow it, the harder it will be) That said, the other morning I was getting ready to leave the house with Ryan and could not find a single soocy in the house. (Ryan's soocies are different than Andrew's and fortunately, he never liked Ryan's and vice versa) Then it had occurred to me that Andrew was playing "Swiper the Fox" the night before, while I was cleaning up from dinner and I just knew that all the soocies had been swiped! When we got home from school pick-up, I asked him where Swiper put all the soocies, and thankfully, he remembered this time where he'd put them...underneath the cushions on the sofa!