| My girls were both pacifier addicts. The Crafter enjoyed hers until age 3. She named her pacifier Bop. The name stuck. The Christmas after she turned 3, we informed her that Santa Claus was taking her bops to the neighbor's new baby because he needed them and she didn't because she was a big girl. The bops disappeared and everything was fine.
When Wild Thing came alone, we discovered that he was a strict thumb man. No pacifier would pass his lips and how dare you even suggest such a thing. Fortunately, he quit thumb sucking as his teeth came in.
Now we move on to Sweetie. Sweetie was a die hard bop addict. She even went so far as to call her pacifiers “Bop Bop” rather than Bop to indicate the strength of her affection. But when Sweetie turned two, it was time to phase out Bop Bop. We started only allowing bop at nap time, bedtime, and on really long trips. Somehow she would manage to find a bop, no matter how many I took away. I am convinced that there is a layer of pacifiers buried in the strata of junk in this house.
But last Sunday, the last bop mysteriously disappeared. I don't know where any are. We had 4 last week. Anyway, I have put Sweetie to bed bopless for the past 3 nights. Guess what? She sleeps just as well without it. She doesn't need it anymore.
Oh, she looks longingly at pictures of babies happily sucking their pacifiers and says “Baby Bop Bop. Me Bop Bop?”
I reply “No Sweetie, bop bop is gone. I can't find it.”
Sweetie says “All wite.”
My baby is growing up. | 
