success

Success so far! On Friday, after Clark's nap, we took the pacifiers over to our friends with the new baby and Frances was completely unsentimental in handing them over. Then we went to the grocery where we bought a cookie cake with frosting balloons and her name, as well as a pink foil princess balloon for Frances and a blue balloon for Clark. At home we sang "Happy Big Girl to You" and she opened the Cinderella Barbie I fought with myself to buy for her. (The Cinderella wasn't quite the overwhelming hit I expected, though she does like her... It's almost like she has these Big Desires for Things, but when she gets them they sort of lose luster.) We let her stay up and watch movies (it turns out she's not ready for movies. We had to turn off Nemo within the first 15 minutes and reverted to School House Rock.) until it was pretty much our bedtime and she was exhausted. She slept the entire night through.

Yesterday morning she got a little whiny and said something to the effect that she hadn't given the pacifiers away forever. I said, in fact, that's exactly what she had done and that was why we had the big celebration and why her dad and I were so proud of her. The whining continued.

At bedtime last night, exhausted, (giving up the pacifier permanently means we're giving up the nap completely too), she whined, "paci, paci" and then "I'm not going to bed until Daddy goes to bed." After much ado and exhausting her father's patience (which is vast), I lay down with her and talked to her about giving things up, how we're sad and we cry and then let them go. She brought up my favorite green sweater which is falling apart and we talked about how I'll eventually have to put it in the trash and that will make me sad too. Finally I sang to her. The first seven or so songs were rejected with more whining. It was Edelweiss she eventually let me sing; only three times through and she was asleep.

At 11:30 and then again at 2 she stood by our bed, half asleep, saying "paci paci." But she let me lead her back to bed and climbed right in.

There's more whining today, though not about the pacifier directly, and I suspect I'd whine too if one of my two primary comforts was taken from me. The dentist said it all would last only two or three days; given her personality I estimate it will be double that--four to six--which means only a few more to go. Not so bad.

And it hasn't been bad. She's been a pretty good trooper and I would think of this parenting moment as suspiciously easy if it weren't for Clark's unending screaming about everything. All I can think, nearly all the time, is he certainly is two. (Even random people in parking lots ask, "Is he two?" and smirk at the thrashing fit.)

So now I'm off to the massage my sweet husband scheduled for me for mother's day. What better?

Happy Mother's Day to all you reading moms too!