"The Pappy Fairy"

I am finally ready to admit this publicly...my daughter, at 3 and a half years old, is a pacifier fiend. She loves it. Can't get enough. She has loved it since she was just a couple weeks old. Ever since, she has been attached. When she started talking she called it her "happy" and that evolved to "pappy". We eventually banned pappy's except for in bed. We have gone through countless pappy's over the years. They get lost (and then found much, much later in the weirdest places) or they get worn out. We told Natalie when she got this last new pappy that when it got old that was it. NO NEW PAPPY'S! Since our girl is really on the ball and knows her mom and dad very well she didn't take us all that seriously. She basically shrugged and said, "yeah right guys, let's see you follow through with this one!" and laughed at us. Needless to say, she didn't believe us.
So, today was the day. I have been talking a big game for two days now. We went with the good old bribery method of parenting and told her if we left her pappy's for the "pappy fairy" she would get a surprise in the morning. She was OK with this most of the times we talked. A few times I was informed that this pappy fairy was going to be thrown away in the trashcan (Natalie's favorite threat to anything she does not like). I was a little worried as bed time grew closer. I started not talking about the subject at all and even had to give Larry "the look" one time when he almost said the dreaded p word. I was in complete denial, and happy there.
We all said goodnight like usual except we skipped getting the most favorite pink pappy with the yellow star off of the shelf. She asked for it and I reminded her as happy as I could that tonight was the big night. She looked at me as if I was more then a little crazy, which at this point I might have been. I took her to her room and we actually sat down and read a few books without incident. Then I put her in bed.
She was really quite pissed off at this "pappy fairy" and had had more then enough of this nonsense. She wanted to go out and see if she was there so she could hit her. She wanted to throw that fairy right into the trash so she couldn't take her pappy's. She didn't care about a surprise. And then she went to sleep. Just like that. One minute I was in her room telling her to please lay down and try to close her eyes, the next I could hear her snoring softly. I should have been thrilled. Beyond thrilled. I should have been. But I just cried. I had some weird break down and I fed Vanessa her bottle. My first baby was growing up. She didn't really need her connection to babydom. It was me. I held her back. She probably could have gone through pappy rehab a long time ago. She is a big girl and I am so proud of her. We will see how the night goes, but whatever happens, I love that girl. She is a joy and a great kid.
Goodbye pappy!