Huge Milestone

On my birthday, October 11th, Jackson had a HUGE milestone. . . he gave up his Nuk (or pacifier). We have held on to it for a long time because he has always tried to put his fingers in his mouth to suck. Ask any teacher and they will tell you horror stories of 10 year olds, 11 year olds, 12 year olds, etc. sucking their thumbs in class. I have told numerous 5th graders to get their thumbs out of their mouths during class, so I did not want Jackson to be a thumb sucker. Well, the time had come, and it was time for Jackson to loose the Nuk. Thomas and I debated for a long time on how we were going to do this. We had heard about all of the tricks and decided we didn't want to trick him. So, Friday, I picked Jackson up from school and told him that we were going to Build-a-Bear (he had been wanting to go to Build-a-Bear for several months) and explained that he was going to put his Nuk in the bear. Jackson cried and cried. My heart broke. Thomas and I took him to look at everything and talk about what was going to happen on Saturday. Jackson looked at all of the animals and picked out an elephant (yes, an elephant). We went home and continued talking about what was going to happen the next day. Saturday morning, we got up and headed to the mall for the big event.

We let Jackson have his Nuk in the car on the way to the mall.

Jackson still wanted the elephant. We tried and tried to talk him into a bear, but he was adamant that he wanted the elephant.

We walked over to get the elephant stuffed and to put the Nuk inside. I was going to have Jackson put the Nuk in his mouth one last time, but he just threw it in the elephant!! We were shocked. Just like that, the Nuk was gone!!

Jackson held up his stuffed elephant with his Nuk tucked safely inside.

He went straight over and started "washing" the elephant.

Then to pick out the clothes. . . Jackson chose a Rangers outfit. I got him dressed and teased Thomas that he was going to have to learn how to dress dolls and stuffed animals for his daughter one day.

Jackson hugs his elephant.

Now for naming the elephant. Jackson decided to name the elephant, "Nuk Nuk". We thought that was a perfect name!

Jackson wanted to carry Nuk Nuk in the box. The box was almost as big as he was!!

Nuk-less update: Everything went pretty well without the Nuk. He never asked for it because he knew were it went. We did notice that it took Jackson A LOT longer to fall asleep without his Nuk for a couple of weeks (he tends to talk a lot in his bed now that his mouth is not being used for other purposes :-) ). Nuk Nuk has his hot and cold moments. Some days, Nuk Nuk is not touched. Other days, we have to take Nuk Nuk with us where we go. The funny thing is that at night, we have to take Nuk Nuk's hat, shoes and socks off. If we leave the house, Jackson is insistent that we put Nuk Nuk's hat, shoes and socks back on!!