These are in my love-hate category. They soothe and aid in sleep. But, beware, the child without a binkie, nook, nite-nite, whatever you call it, is a screaming banshee. The baby-pacifier relationship starts out cute, but escalates rapidly into an obsession. And you are equally a part of this obsession. If it’s lost, you’ll toss your entire home looking for it. You’ll blame others for losing it. You’ll ask the older sibling if he or she took it. It will ruin you. I speak from experience. But my fear of sleep deprivation trumps that of the pacifier.

It was time. I was in denial, but it was time say goodbye to sleeping and my daughter’s nook, as she called it. She was a little over 2 years old. After a fair amount of deliberation, I came up with a story to tell her about a nook fairy. Figured if there is a tooth fairy, why not add to the fairy mix. This beautiful fairy lived up in the clouds and waited for brave little boys and girls to fly their nooks up to her, tied to balloons, so little crying babies could have them. I realize this story is ridiculous, but my daughter loved fairies, balloons and talking about clouds; so why not try to sell this story. She bought it. We flew the nooks up into the air, tied to the balloons. They got stuck in a nearby tree. But I took care of that using our roof rake; the nooks were on their way. Dancing their way up into the sky to the fairy in the clouds who would be so happy at my little Evie’s nook sacrifice for crying babies in need. I saved one balloon for her to keep and she was content.

Fast forward to bedtime. I reminded her of the nook fairy and how sweet and kind it was that she gave her nooks to the nook fairy. She looked up at me and her Daddy and said, “But, where my nooks?”. My Mommy heart sank. The fairy ploy failed. It was going to be the first night of many long nights for the screaming banshee. But, her reaction was not what I anticipated. She snuggled her little purple hippo and fell asleep. She asked about the nook fairy a few times over the course of that week, but then, she moved on. Thanks, nook fairy.