Bye bye pink paci

We took Ella's paci away last night. It broke her heart and I am still not sure exactly WHY I chose last night, but it is time. She's over 2 and a half and her doctor frowned at me when she was only 2 and still had it. She's such a smart little girl. She came pitter-pattering down the stairs to tell me she couldn't find her pink paci (all words these days come with adjectives before them) and I told her that the pink paci was gone. I threw it away. It had a crack (not true exactly) and that it became dangerous and that she was much better off without it. She thought this over for a few minutes and replied, "Well, what about the purple paci"? The purple paci is the one I keep hidden in case we really do lose the pink one. I told her it was dirty and also had to be thrown out. She was sad, she cried, but she made it thorough the night without her beloved paci. It was hard not to give it back to her. Just like it was hard not to let her sleep in her swing when it was time to move to the bed and just like it will be hard over and over and over as she grows up and becomes attached to things that she has to leave behind. But her sweet little face is so hard to resist.