Bye bye paci

I just realized I never gave an update on Audrey's dentist visit, after hyping it up so much.  So, here goes.  Audrey did survive her first dentist visit a few weeks ago, although it was rather traumatic.  The dentist and staff were great and did their best to ply her with the movie Rio, balloon animals, toys and beach balls but she was having none of that.  She cooperated through the brushing part of the cleaning but freaked out when she had to have some plaque scraped off and then for the flossing and flouride treatment.  I actually had to throw her balloon animal in the trash when she started beating me over the head with it.  Terrible twos anyone?

Anyway, the good news is - no cavities.  And her teeth are in decent shape despite the horrible "brushing" job we do each night.  The bad news - we need to pin her down on the bed now to actually get her teeth brushed.  We need to do this twice a day rather than once.  We need to start flossing her teeth (this should be an Olympic sport).  We need to limit the carbohydrate snacks which apparently turn directly into sugar in the mouth (??) and most of all WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE PACI.  Of course I knew this - she is almost 2 years old after all - I've just been dragging my feet because the pacifier literally saved our sanity the first year of Audrey's life and was the only thing that let us get 4-5 hours of sleep a night rather than 2.  I know that's a lame excuse but when you're so tired you start the coffee machine while not noticing that the pot is still in the dishwasher and flood your kitchen with coffee, you would pretty much give your baby crack if someone told you it would make them sleep.  So I gave her not one paci but three (I know, I know) and by 12 months old she finally started sleeping through the night.  Maybe this wouldn't have been so bad but as she got older and more mobile the pacis started making their way out of the crib and into her daytime routine.  I would give her one to avoid a tantrum at the post office, or when she was teething really badly, that sort of thing.  But since the dentist appointment I have grown a pair and put my foot down.  We did fall off the wagon a bit during our road trip but fortunately we are back on track and only using them at night now.  My goal is to have her off them completely by the time school starts in September but that is probably wishful thinking.  Just like I thought I could potty train her by the age of two.  HA HA.  That birthday would be, um, this Friday and she still can't even get her pants up and down by herself.  But I blame it on first-child parental cluelessness.  Not sure what excuse I'm going to use when we get around to #2...