I'd be a wealthy woman...

...if I had a dime for every one of these our freaky cat has destroyed.
Lulu doesn't even like them that much, but I like to have them around for those times that nothing else seems to satisfy. I am so sick of finding them in pieces.

Little Bit was a 'pacifier baby' as soon as he started teething. He LOVED the things, and I was CONSTANTLY buying new ones to replace the ones the cat ate. We never went anywhere without at least two of the things, as sometimes that's all that would comfort him. I'm still finding 'his brand' stashed here and there, kind of like finding the secret JD stash of an alcoholic.

I once was watching an episode of one of those nanny shows, and one of the kids was a paci-addict, and I saw our future if we didn't do something about Little Bit's addiction immediately. About that same time, he decided that he simply couldn't live without the things. I had been working up to the idea of breaking the habit, and about a month before had started confining them to the bed only. I would hide that one under a blanket and not call attention to it when bedtime arrived. He would ALWAYS dig around until he unearthed it, pop it in his mouth and happily drift off to sleep. After watching that episode where the kid was FOUR and still using the thing, I decided it was time to go cold turkey then and there. He was almost a year old, and that was the hardest week of bedtimes ever, before or since. As it turns out stubborn really is his middle name, and there were several nights when I almost gave in. Daddy McAustin was traveling so I was alone, and I just wanted the screaming to stop. I held firm however, and after the fourth night he didn't cry at all.

I worried when Lulu came along that he might start up again using hers, but he has never shown any interest in her pacifiers. But you better believe when I find one of 'his' it goes immediately into the trash without him ever setting eyes on it.

If only the cat problem was as easily solved.