Emma the Pacivore

Paci (pa-see) - noun-: short for pacifier; initially designed to satisfy a babies innate desire to suck; possible side effects include sleep, complete joy when paci is present, total and utter devastation including potential end-of-world situation when paci is absent or otherwise withheld.

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When Emma was born she wasn't super into the pacifier.  We didn't offer one for the first few weeks, and even after that we tried to meet whatever other needs she might have before resorting to it because we didn't want her or us to become dependent on it (ha ha).  Here she is, 20 1/2 months old and I know the day will come when we'll send her pacis off to the paci-fairy, but a this point we will only have two to send away.  Wanna know why?  Because I think my daughter is a hoarder.  Oh yes, at our high point we had about six pacis (give or take one or two).  Now we have one of those original pacis, have purchased three more since then of which we only have one new paci remaining.  Even our emergency paci (like, "break glass in case of emergency" paci) is MIA.

My theory is that Emma has a little hoard of pacis that she is keeping in case of her own emergency...such as when we send her other two away to the paci deprived children serviced by the paci-fairy.  Three separate times I have frantically searched her room, under her crib, her closet, her stack of stuffed animals, her diaper bag, only to turn around and see that she has one IN.HER.MOUTH!  Where are these pacis coming from (and subsequently disappearing back to).  I have thought several times about hot gluing a penny to the backside of all of them so that I can find them with our metal detector.  A paci-GPS may also be an option...potentially a higher initial cost, but I think many paci-dependent parents would put up development money for such an invention.

Two other times I knew that I knew that I knew (you know, those times that you just KNOW) that she had a paci in her mouth when I put her in her crib and I took her out of her crib without a paci in her mouth.  I searched the entire room only to find that the paci had landed on the top of the plug that is plugged into an electrical outlet between the bottom of her crib and the floor.  I mean, is she putting it there intentionally so I'll find another one and she always has a spare in arm's reach?

So, when the time comes that we send our pacis away in a few months (I say "our" because they are as much for me as they are for Emma), I won't be surprised if we go through a couple rounds as Emma clears out her stash.

If only she just weaned herself off of them, it would be soooo much easier.