Goodbye, Sut!

Its time for Axel to give up the pacifier, or as we call it in Danish, the "sut" (pronounced "soot").  In Denmark they have a great tradition of a sut tree, (www.denmark-pictures.com/the-pacifier-tree.html) where all the kids string up their pacifiers on a tree in the community - some even leave little notes saying "goodbye sut, I love you, I am a big girl now so I don't need you anymore".

But here in the US we have no such thing, unfortunately.  Instead I have been preparing Axel all weekend by telling him that suts are for babies, and now that he is a big boy, he should give over his sut to the babies who really need it.  With the help of our friend Baby Hunter, we made this tough milestone a fun little ritual:

Afterwards, Axel gets to open a "big kid present" as a reward for giving up his sut. (I know, I spoil him!)

We recorded it all on video in case Axel later forgets what happened:

Now that the fun part is over and all the pacifiers are gone, we begin the real work of sleeping and soothing Axel without the help of his favorite crutch.  Hopefully this transition will be painless and brief, after all, he is a big boy now, right???