Hit the road, Jack!

Hit the road, Jack. And don'tcha come back no more, no more, no more, no more.

Take a good look at this picture. If all continues to go well, this will be the last photo you see here of my precious Biscuit baby with that pacifier stuck in his mouth.

We went to Mama's house for Easter, and I almost forgot to pack the bowl we use to store Biscuit's pacifiers. The thought crossed my mind to just leave it home, but I panicked at the last minute and threw them in Biscuit's bag.

We got to Mama's, and Biscuit got busy greeting "all his peoples," and he never asked for a pacifier. We had been keeping it from him during the day anyway, so he would usually only ask for it close to bedtime.

As bedtime rolled around, he asked for it, "I have paseefier, Mom?"

"Let's go brush your teeth," I said. He asked again, and I came up with something else to stall him.

Finally, he fell asleep without it. He didn't ask for it again until we got home two days later.

Biscuit is routine-oriented about a lot of things. (I have no idea where he got that from.) So our first night back at home, he wandered into the kitchen and called me.

"I have paseefier, Mom?" he asked.

"I don't see one," I said to him.

"Yeah, Mom. Right there," he said as he pointed to where we usually keep them. Luckily, as I was unpacking, I stuck the bowl in a cabinet, so he couldn't see them.

"I think we left them at Grandmama's house," I said. "We'll have to get them next time we go down there."

And he hasn't asked for one again.

I never had a strong feeling one way or another about Biscuit's pacifier usage until a girlfriend of mine asked him a question one day. He answered her question without ever taking the pacifier out of his mouth. You could sort of understand what he was saying, but he's so good at talking, I just hated for him to try to talk around that thing.

It's certainly been a lot easier than I thought it would be to get rid of them. I'm not sure if he's forgotten about them completely or if he might ask again.

But as far as I'm concerned, his pacifiers have hit the road, Jack!