Dentist and Pacifier

On Monday Alan and I had appointments with the dentist. Like every other time we've had appointments since Simon was born, we had him swing by to visit. He looks at the fish in the lobby, meets the dentist and sits in the chair. This time was a little different because when he sat in the chair, Ginger, the dental assistant, showed him Mr. Thirsty. Mr. Thirsty sucks the water from a cup or from your mouth! She let Simon hold the cup and the sucker and showed him how to put it into his mouth a couple times (which made him laugh). He got more comfortable and let her check out his mouth and even let her put the mirror in there so she could see his teeth. He has one of his 2 year molars and all 16 of the other kids teeth we'd expect him to have. They look great. (He does brush twice a day!) But she noticed that his front teeth are a little pushed forward and she guessed that he still used a pacifier. She suggested we get him off the pacifier soon, before 2 and his teeth should adjust themselves. After Simon's dentist visit it was Alan's turn. While Alan got his teeth cleaned Simon and I walked to the lake and found a cute little park with swings and boats. Alan joined us for a bit before we went home for dinner and bed.

Luckily Jenn is awesome - she started transitioning Simon away from pacifiers at nap time ages ago so the next steps we hoped would be easy. On Tuesday there was a serious conversation about throwing the pacifier away and then Simon threw it in the trash and said Goodbye. On Tuesday night before he went to bed I reminded him about throwing the pacifier in the trash and he remembered but he still looked around for it when I set him down. Another quick reminder and he stopped looking and settled down. Then Simon went to sleep just like normal - meaning he talked to his animals and waived his feet in the air for about 20 minutes after I left before falling asleep. He slept all night, no issues! In the morning there was a brief period of looking for the pacifier (usually it's lost in the blankets, so that's a routine) and when I reminded him again that he put it in the trash, Simon stopped looking and was fine. Wednesday night Alan reminded him again before bed time and Simon went to sleep like normal and this morning no looking. It might be a bit early to declare complete victory, but I cautiously present that we are pacifier free.

Here are some photos of the park on Monday:

And I'm UP!

Now how do I get down?

Birds!

row, row, row your boat!