It is 7:40 and the crying has begun and I hesitate to predict how long it will continue. For a tragedy occurred this afternoon of such epic proportion I am having a hard time retelling it. Today at approximately 12:30 p.m. Jackson's paci was taken from us. Whisked away in a devastating fashion. Whirled away, swept away...flushed away. The scene was the ladies bathroom at the Palace, in the first stall. Jackson had just finished a nice bowel movement, dutifully deposited in the potty like the big boy he is becoming. It was during the usually rewarding flush portion of the ritual that disaster struck. The small boy leaned over the potty to watch his issue go down when his prized possession, his "Pooh" paci (as in Winnie) fell from his lips into the maelstrom. I saw it happen, like slow motion, and I tried to reach it. Unthinkingly and without hesitation I thrust my hand into the commode and felt the paci (and the poop) slip through my fingers, lost to the industrial strength of the pressurized flush of the Palace potty.
There was a moment of shocked silence afterward, while the boy and I looked at each other in disbelief. Then the devastation hit us both. He cried for his loss of comfort just prior to his nap. I nearly cried for my now-ruined work day, as I knew that his nap would be a trial instead of a time of rest.
He cried, fussed, yelled and bargained from his crib-bed in the makeshift nursery at the Palace. After two hours of persistence, he peed in his pants, messing his bed in final defiance at the commode and at the mommy who did not, could not retrieve the last existing paci in the Sray Household.
It has been a long afternoon, but he finally calmed down, took his bath, and went to bed. Except he doesn't have his paci and he suspects that their might be an old red paci lurking about the house somewhere. And he may be right. It suspect the same thing. But am unwilling to take the house apart looking for it. The Pooh Paci is gone and some old, worn-out red paci that should have been thrown out ages ago is not going to do more than prolong the battle.
We have been weaning him off the paci, slowly, for some time now. And this violent 'whoosh' is not the way I planned or wanted to end the love affair with paci-dom. It has been traumatic to both the boy and his mommy. And now the cries of "Reeeddd Paacciii!" are probably going to continue well into the night. He seems to have accepted that the Pooh paci is gone. He saw it go. The red paci is still a beacon in his head, calling to him.
Sigh. It's gonna be a long night. Or two...or three.
1 comment:
First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
I know that it was traumatic but the Paci story cracked me up! Pooh Paci falling in the crapper. Mom valiantly tried to save the day - and Jackson knows that. You all both experienced the loss together. It almost seems better this way because you all didn't take it from him. Knowing him though, he is thinking about that red paci and if it is still in the house, he will find it. It will be his, MOOoooOOhahaha -ehem. Having him tell me on the phone what happened, how the paci went around and around was awesome. He is a good story teller. I think you should make a video of him telling the story.
~E
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