So, I'll just come right out with it. My daughter is over three and a half years old, and she still takes a pacifier.
Or she did, at least, until Saturday.
Saturday I happened to notice the way she gazed at her pacifier. It's similar to the way I gaze at my husband. Or at least at a Three Musketeers. I began to realize that we were on a fast track for Corrie to still be using it on her wedding day. And a sparkly pink piece of plastic in her mouth will not look at all good with the dress I have in mind for her I'm sure she will pick out all on her own.
So Saturday was the day. We'd actually been talking to her about it for weeks. We explained to her what I'm sure you already know (*wink, wink*): that baby squirrels love pacifiers, but the poor baby squirrels in our backyard don't have any, and since she's a big girl who no longer needs them, how about if we give them her pacifier stash?
At first, she loved the idea. She eagerly rounded up all the pacifiers in our house, and we put them in a baby shower gift sack (because that is, of course, the most appropriate method for presenting gifts to baby squirrels).
We waited until bedtime (because that is, of course, the most optimal time for gift-giving to squirrels), and her daddy carried her out to the play fort. Very tentatively, with a sigh or two, she placed her bag in the fort.
It was a long, sad trek up to her room. She looked so small--and yet so grown-up--all pacifier-less in her bed. "I hope they bwing them back," she said, her eyes filling with tears. I told her how proud I was of her unselfishness, and what a good thing she had done making a difference in these baby squirrels' lives.
And then I said in my head, did that sentence really just come out of my mouth?
It wasn't her best night's sleep, but she made it. The next morning, she made a bee-line for the fort. Oh, how she and I danced with delight with her to see that the squirrels had, in fact, taken every last pacifier.
The victory is won. The problem is solved. The squirrels are properly gifted.
And my sweet baby girl is--oh, my heart--just a little less baby.
