I'm not sure exactly which night this happened, I just know that it was sometime in December, after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. I'm sure you're wondering what happened? Well, Kyler got rid of his pacifier! Kyler calls it his "it" because when Kyler was little, Erik and I used to say to each other, "do you have 'it'?", meaning his pacifier, when we would go places. Kyler caught on to this after a while, and started calling his pacifier his "it". Anyways, we have been talking about getting rid of Kyler's pacifier for a while now, and I thought that it would be good to do it by the time he turned 4. He has only had it while he sleeps for the past couple of years anyways. We had read on a friend's blog that they let their child go pick out something different to sleep with, like a stuffed animal, when they got rid of their pacifier. Kyler already had a small stuffed Elmo that he slept with along with his pacifier, but we still liked the idea. Erik presented the idea to Kyler and Kyler didn't think that was a good idea. He would say things like, "I will go pick out something, but I still need my it". So, he wanted to go pick out something, but still wanted his pacifier. When we first presented this idea to Kyler, it was sometime in the late fall I think. We kept talking about it, as we weren't going to push it, but Kyler still wasn't really interested. Well a little before Thanksgiving, Erik saw a small stuffed version of Animal, the Muppet, on Amazon. He decided to order it for Kyler and thought that him seeing something would give him more incentive to give up his pacifier. Kyler had seen one of the Muppet's movies, and loved Animal because he played the drums. However, Kyler doesn't call Animal, "Animal" he calls him "Woman". :) Why? Because in the Muppet move Kyler saw, Animal yells, "WOMAN!", so Kyler calls him Woman. :) When he first mentioned this after watching the movie, Erik and I started laughing because it took us a while to figure out what he was talking about. Other side note, Kyler had seen the Muppet's movie about a year ago for the first time. Anyways, "Woman" arrived and was in a plastic bag, and Erik told Kyler that he could open him if he got rid of his "it". Woman was then placed on top of a bookshelf in our bedroom where Kyler could clearly see him. Kyler would ask several times if he could open "Woman", but then we would ask for his pacifier, and he would tell us "no". Then one night, he walked into our room, gave Erik his pacifier, and said that he wanted to get rid of his "it" and open Woman. So, Erik took Kyler's pacifier, and gave him Animal. I was a little apprehensive about this, as I was afraid Kyler would just lay in his bed and never go to sleep. But, we put Kyler and Norah to bed just like always, and when I came back to check on them before I went to bed, Kyler was sound asleep. He didn't cry or whine or anything. I also was expecting to hear him awake in the night crying wanting his pacifier, but he didn't do that either. I thought the real test was going to be at his nap the next day, that he would just lay there and wouldn't nap, (which he had done even with a pacifier), but nope, he still took a nap. He did ask for his pacifier before his nap, and told us he needed his "it" back, but we just reminded him he had given it up and he didn't need it anymore because he was a big boy and that he had Woman now. :) He still would tell us he needed his it back a few more times before taking a nap or going to bed, but we just kept telling him the same thing. He never cried, and him asking for it only lasted for a few days, and he moved on! So nice to not have to think about that! Just one more milestone for our almost 4-year-old! Here's a picture of Kyler with Woman :)
One other note, after sleeping with Woman the first night or two, Kyler told me that Woman needed a haircut because his hair was tickling him in the night. We didn't cut Animal's hair, but he now sits next to Kyler's pillow. :)
