Friday's Child - Not a Favorite in Sight

I'm not sure now, what I was thinking then. When Jacob was very young, he wanted NOTHING to do with a pacifier. But we worked to find one that he would take. What were we thinking? Were we crazy?! I mean seriously...we TRIED to get our baby to start taking a pacifier...PURPOSELY...knowing that we do not want a toddler with a paci, so in all likelihood, we would have to later wean said baby from his paci.

Samantha really liked her paci when she was a baby, but mostly when she was sleeping or sleepy. Jacob has been like that, too. Although, he will take it anytime he can get his hands on it, it's just that sleeping is the only time it's actually necessary.

Then when Samantha was about 9 months old, she chose Lambie and Blankie as her favorites...and left the pacifier behind, only needing lambie to go to sleep. Woohoo! That was easy and painless. We were very happy that we would not have to work to wean her from the paci.

I hoped that Jacob would do the same thing. But although he enjoys stuffed animals and will even snuggle with one as he sleeps, he does not seem anywhere close to choosing something as a favorite. And he certainly doesn't put them in his mouth as much as Samantha did. Come to think of it, I don't understand why, though. He puts EVERYTHING ELSE he can get his hands on into his mouth! I am completely serious. For example, a couple days ago, I went to get another piece of fuzz out of his mouth, and discovered that it wasn't a piece of fuzz. Nope, not fuzz. It was a daddy-longlegs. And then after I pulled it out of his mouth, I discovered it was alive. I know this because it very quickly scrambled away once it was free. Yeah...nice. That made me wonder, since a daddy-longlegs venom is so deadly (it really is, their mouths just aren't big enough to break human skin) does that mean it would be poisonous to eat?

Anyway...I digress...back to the pacifier dilemma.

So I was saying that Jacob hasn't chosen a favorite toy, blanket, whatever. Well, other than Samantha's Lambie, that is. And she CERTAINLY objects to that. She does not want him (or anyone other than Mommy or Daddy) to handle her Lambie at all. So I seriously doubt that she will give it up for that to be his favorite. Anyway, the point is, that he doesn't seem to have anything that is more important to him than his paci. And he is a week and a half from being 10 months.

I know that I don't need to worry too much about the paci quite yet. But at the same time, if we let it go too long, it really will be a battle getting him to give it up. So I'm wondering what I should do. I could find a lambie for Jacob (they do have one that isn't pink) and hope that he would like it as much as he likes Samantha's pink one. After all, maybe it is the rattle inside the stuffed animal that he likes so much. But then again, it could just be that he knows how attached Samantha is to Lambie so that is why he likes it, and the new one wouldn't make any difference.

I could just try going cold turkey with no pacifiers and see what happens. But that could backfire and we could have a lot less sleep going on.

Or I could just let things go for now and see where we are in a month or so. I just don't know what to do. Do you have any ideas to share? And if you know the answer to the daddy-longlegs question, please, enlighten me.