Adios Pootie

Tuff has always called his paci a "pootie." Not sure where it came from, how, when or why... But that's what it's been called. Pootie has been Tuff's very BEST friend since day 1. Even when he was a tee-tiny newborn....

....he loved his pootie.

Some days, he would even suck 2 pooties.

But our pootie days are thankfully sadly coming to an end!

Tuff went through a stage sometime last year where he started chewing on his pooties. He would chew on them so badly that we would have to throw them away and buy new ones. I constantly told him that pooites are expensive and if he kept on chewing on them that mommy and daddy weren't going to buy him anymore. But instead of keeping my word, we kept buying them. Eventually he stopped chewing on them. Well about 3-4 weeks ago he started this bad habit again! 3-4 weeks ago we probably had 5-6 pooties stocked up. One by one they were thrown away because of being chewed to a point where they couldn't be sucked on. When he started this habit back up I told him "Mommy and Daddy are NOT buying anymore pooties!" (and I mean't it this time!!!) About 2 weeks ago we got down to the LAST pootie and he started chewing on it too. Once I told him "This is your LAST pootie, mommy and daddy aren't buying anymore so you better not chew it up!" I think it set in. And he figured out "Hey! I think she's serious this time! I better hold onto this one!" So, after a little chewing I cut the nawed part off. (I think this is when it REALLY set in and he knew I was serious)

Here is pootie now.

2 weeks later and he is still holding on tight. Literally. Most nights he goes to sleep holding the pootie in his hand instead of putting it in his mouth. Obviously since it's almost impossible to suck now. I think it's just a sense of "security" for him. But hey! It's a start! Right? Right! For a kid  who used to wake up in the middle of the night to find his pootie and if he couldn't find it, he'd wake EVERYONE else up to find it too.... I think it's a start!

YAY!!! to losing the pootie.

Not so much for losing our baby!!!

Mommy & Daddy are SO proud of the big boy he's becoming!!!

Now... here's to being pootie-less! :)