3 is totally big.

my (wow.  i can say it now.) three year old ... has always LOVED her nuk nuk.

LOVED.
(note the all capitals)

LOVED.
(note the past tense verbage)

it's funny.
looking back now ... i knew so much about her before she was even born.  i just didn't realize how all of that was truly going to be pieces of her personality. 
like how she would jump in utero at the sound of a dog barking - and now?  the girl hates barking dogs are not her favorite. 
i remember watching her little wiggling body during an ultrasound and witnessed her attempting to suck her thumb ... she ended up poking herself in the eye ... but ...  and how i could constantly feel her wiggle around and then settle. movement of arms and then a full body relax.  i realized during my pregnancy that this girl was going to be either a thumb sucker or a pacifier kid. 

being the speech-language pathologist that i am.  i popped a pacifier in ... because i'm not really that into thumb amputation.
and i could totally take away the pacifier before she turned one. 
because teeth position and jaw stability and interdental /s/ production and yada yada yada ...

so yeah. 
and then she was about to turn three.
and i realized it was now or never.

because 3 is totally big.

she was going to send her nuk-nuks to sophie.
because they were girly and finn wouldn't like them.
and then?  two nights before the big T-H-R-E-E ...
sending them away became not-such-a-cool-idea.
(sara?  you. are. welcome.  i'm thinking you were not too keen on getting a bunch of used nuk-nuks in the mail.)

plan b.
(aka ... plan mama had to come up with real quick to save face.)

SCISSORS.

oh yeah.  you can use my big girl scissors!  cut the nuk nuks! (then you can still hold them ... but you can't suck them ... because big girls don't use nuk nuks!  yippee!)
and she bought it.

so ...

monday morning.  i went in a snapped a picture of my sleeping three year old.
(what?  you don't take pictures of your sleeping children?)
darn.  i was hoping for the nuk nuk usage shot.

so i whispered a happy birthday song to her. 
and she smiled.
put up her hand.
and said ... "mama no talkin'.  it's seeping time."
i responded with a plea of birthdays! and turning three! and big girls!
she wasn't going to fall for it.
"mama.  it.  is.  seeping time.  no talkin'."

finally.  i got the girl outta bed.  for this.  my baby girl.

a picture of her with her nuk nuk!  for the last time!
i got out the BIG scissors.  because there was no going back.

snip snip.
sniff sniff.  (that was me.)

my baby girl is three.

three is totally big.