Pulling the Plug

We did it!  We got bubs off his pacifier!

I've actually tried a couple times in the past, but have been unsuccessful.  This time we're done!  Thank the Lord!

This was a bit of a struggle for us both.  Not only was the paci a comfort for bubs, but it was a comfort for us too.  It was the one thing we knew that we could  use to comfort our lil guy.  Nolan took to a paci right away.  The first time I couldn't comfort him with by feeding or holding, I just stuck a paci in his mouth and it was a hit. {No judgement}.  He was really paci obsessed, he carried multiple pacis with him at a time and would switch them out.  We wouldn't dare leave the house without a pacifier.  I had them everywhere, the car, my bedroom, his bedroom, my purse, my diaper bag...everywhere.  The thought of not having one handy and him losing one would strike fear in my heart.  We knew that he needed to be off of it by his 2nd bday.  It was the same thing we did with Amelia.  M and I both agreed that 2 was the right age, we did't want them to go to college with pacifiers. lol

It was surprisingly quick for us.  A habit of 2 years we felt like we just needed to take it away quickly, like a band aid. So we cut a few of his pacifiers in half and gave him one.  His face when we gave him the paci was priceless.  He looked so confused! lol We told him that it was broken.  So he asked for another one, it too was broken.  He tried and tried to suck on them, but he looked so unsatisfied.  I told him they were broken and to throw them in the trash.  That was a bad idea, he kept going back to the trash and looking at them. it was the course of a day and he had gone through all the broken ones and thrown them in the trash.  Then it was cold turkey  He just went about his day and played, there were times where I could tell he was was searching for one.   He seemed almost a little lost.

Sleeping was a big struggle.  I didn't even want to put him down for a nap, I just let him tire out and he fell asleep on his own, no pacifier needed.  The first night was terrible.  He kept waking up and crying for it.  Poor lil guy.  He ended up sleeping with us because he was waking up so often.  it was a rough night for all of us.  In the morning he looked for a pacifier for a good 15 minutes then went on with his day.

Since then we haven't looked back.  Well, to be honest there have been a few breakdowns of his where I wish I could have just stuck a paci in his mouth.  Trust me, I was super close to doing that.  I did get my self control and just power through.  This wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I totally feared it for nothing.  I should have just put more faith in Nolan.  He is doing fine a week later, like nothing ever happened.  I see more of his facials expressions.  He seems to be communicating more and hopefully we didn't mess up his teeth. lol

Pacifier Lover

                                   

Before pulling the plug

                                 

After :)

                                 

So handsome without his Pacifier :)

                                 

Sapporo {throwback thursday}

Since a lot of the news talk these days is about snow, I thought I'd throw it back to our trip to Sapporo Japan.  We went to the annual snow and ice festival in February 2011.  Amelia was 2 and I was 5 months pregnant with Nolan.  This was the first ever cold vacation that I've taken.  My idea of a vacation is somewhere warm and preferably by some body of water.  We heard so many great things about the festival and Sapporo, so we had to make the trip up there.

Sapporo is located on  Hokkaido , it's the most northern island in Japan.  We took two plane rides and a bus to get to Sapporo.  It was SUPER cold.  Maybe since being in Okinawa we weren't ready for the cold weather.  It was no joke.  I of course packed to look cute in the snow, but that all went out the window when I got there.  I practically layered all my clothes everyday!

We stayed there for 3 nights and 4 days.  It was pretty fun.  Our hotel was located in the heart of Sapporo so we would go see something then come back to our hotel and warm up.  The snow sculptures were amazing!  Theses things were gigantic and had so much detail.  I was literally in awe of every single one of them.  We went to see them during the day and at night.  I suggest going at night!  The way they are light up at night looks so magical.  I remember Amelia saying "wow" the whole time we were walking around looking at them.

My favorite part of the trip was when we went to this parking lot that was converted into a big snow playground.  There were slides, rides, ice sculptures, snow playgrounds.  It was super awesome.  I know Amelia had the time of her life there.  This was the first time she had seen snow and been old enough to play.

Another notable mention of this trip was the FOOD!  Hokkaido is famous for their seafood, crab in particular.  It was so good, I still dream about it to this day.  It was so good I didn't even get a picture of it.