Pahs and Pah Monsters
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As you know, we have a bit of a “pah” obsession going on in our house. Pahs would be Baby Bug’s affectionate name for a pacifier. We don’t call them binkys or pacies or anything like that. We call them “pahs.”
I think it started back when she was first learning to talk. She probably meant to say pacifier but shortened it to the first syllable like she did to most words back then. Probably because she was teaching me her language as much as I was teaching her mine, we adopted her word for her beloved pacifier and so it has been ever since.
Um. Well… sort of.
A while back, at Baby Bug’s two-year check up, we had a heart to heart about her pah with her doctor. The doctor said she didn’t really need it anymore. There wasn’t a problem with her having it but she was a big girl now and just didn’t need it. Baby Bug listened solemnly and gave up her pah that very day. Of course she still needed it during nap time and bedtime but no more carrying around three or four and one in her mouth every hour of the day. I though that was great and bragged about her achievement to everyone who would listen.
Then Toby left for two weeks and between missing her Daddy and her molars coming in and me just wanting the whining to stop…she fell off the pah wagon hard. Half a year later, the pahs are as much of a our daily life as they have ever been. I wave my white flag in defeat. We are embracing the pah in our household. She’ll give it up when she’s three, I hope. Or not. Whatever. I could go on and on with this subject but I have other things to blog about.
Like the Meanie Greenie Pah Monsters!
It was one of those days where the hours before bedtime waxed long and I didn’t really want to go to the boring old park AGAIN. I’m so bored of the park.
Sometimes on my way to the park, I squeeze my eyes shut and wish that some kind of amazing toddler-appropriate theme park with rides and trampolines and big blow-up bounce houses would magically appear where the old sandbox and swings and dumb winding-pipe slide is. And while I’m daydreaming maybe there would be slushie stand where you could get tequila in your slushie if you knew the right password or something. Just kidding!
Anyway! The park is boring and I didn’t want to go. It was a cold gray day and I wanted to stay inside because I’m a lazy homebody, I admit it. What I really wanted to do was play on my computer.
So I did what any laptop addict would do in my situation. I cajoled Baby Bug into sitting on my lap and “helping” me play on my computer. This is sort of tricky since she has a very short attention span. Though my adobe illustrator skills are keen, they are not quite fast enough or entertaining enough for her. I had to work fast. With her help in picking out colors and directing where the eyeballs should go, we made some monsters. Then we had to give them pahs. Because anything that is worth anything has to have a pah of course.
I printed them out onto iron-on transfer paper and ironed them onto some old muslin I had around. Then I sewed them up into little pillows except this time I filled them with rice instead of stuffing.
So now they are bean bags! Or rice bags, if you want to get technical. I suppose this means I could nuke them in the microwave and put them on my aching shoulder muscles too but that was not my purpose in creating them.
Meet the Pah Monsters. That’s Greenie, Pinky and Yellowie. Pinky is sad because he does not have a pah. Obviously. Baby Bug took to them right away (and why would she not since she helped create them) and has acted out several play-time conversations with them.
Most of her conversations have Pinkie crying dramatically and Yellowie saying “Nah nah nah, I have all the pahs!” or something like that. I know. What am I encouraging here? Anyway, they are fun and they work pretty well for tossing into holes cut in a box too.
Bean bags are great. I think I’ll be making more of these.
71 Comments
camels & chocolate
I needed your Pah Monsters last weekend when my boyfriend and I drove all over San Fran looking for mini beanbags for a game for a bbq
camels & chocolate
Oops.
…for a bbq we were throwing (to no avail).
Also, I love that Baby Bug listened to her doctor and took note — that’s for mature for a two year old!
Andi
I had a pacifier until I was 3. Then my mom started cutting the tops of them off and they were so uncomfortable in my mouth. So since my choices were gross pacifiers or nothing, I chose to give them up. But I was pretty mad at my mom….
amyinbc
Please, stop being so CREATIVE!! You are making us other mother/artists look bad. Very bad!
Son so loved his ‘suckee’ that he continued having it (only at nap or bedtime) until he was 4.5 and his twin sisters were born. After wondering why the babies were waking up crying and their suckee’s nowhere to be found I knew something had to go! (We would find little secret stashes of them under his pillow, too cute.)
So out went the soothers and I honestly do not remember son mourning them. I think he was content giving them up knowing the girls had to too. (And thankfully they were just fine with it.)
Sam
I don’t like to be the Debbie Downer on the “pahs” – love the name, by the way, so cute, I may have to start using that one instead of “pacis”. The only problem I have with pacis is when the kiddos start talking around it and then it messes with their speech. I had this problem with one of my preschool kids – he was very paci dependent, but the rule is no pacis outside of the nursery. So all my kids that were JUST FINE in my class with no pacis, totally had them as soon as they got in the car to go home. (most of them turned three during the school year.) And really, the speech was terribly difficult to decipher for this one little dude, and I felt bad because he would get frustrated with me when I couldn’t understand what he was saying! But then again – he could simply have a totally different reason for the speech problem. I am no expert.
So that’s my only concern, and yet of course my child has a paci! I do like the idea of the paci fairy or whatever. We may have a paci ninja or some sort of manly thing when the time comes.
Amanda Brown
You are my hero. Avelyn quit the soother at 8 months but would walk around with a bottle dangling from her mouth all day if I let her. She has a bottle for nap times and bedtime (I know, terrible for the teeth!) and I don’t see her giving it up any time before her fifth birthday. She turns 2 this summer and she loves it more than ever, and with a new baby on the way I think she’ll see her sucking a bottle and want one EVERY HOUR. What can ya do?
falwyn
I LOVE the pah monsters. You may have another hit on your hands. :)
Kaili
SO creative, you two! I love how you and Baby Bug come up with fun things to fill you afternoons with. Can you move here? And we can hang out! :) Playing monster bean bag toss and drinking imaginary tequila slushies! Haha!
Rachel
Love the pah monsters!
So, when she’s ready to quit, just don’t tell her the pony ate them. I tried to feed a number of pacis to my grandmother’s pony due to bad information, apparently. ;)
Lady M
Splendid pah monsters!
The last “pup” (as my son called his pacifiers) broke last month, and now my three year old is pacifier-free. We’d been warning him for almost six months that there wouldn’t be any more after the Last One, and he took it better than we expected. Whew.
Jean
I was the same way until I took my kid to the dentist. He gave up enough information on what it could do to adult teeth, jaw line ect. That we gave them up the same afternoon. :)
ioi
When Dolly tuned 2.5, we took her soothers away except for when she was in bed/nap. Then for the next 6 months we told her that when she turned 3, she wouldn’t have a soother anymore because she’d be a big girl. We talked about it a lot. On her third birthday, I told her she was a big girl now and that she didn’t need a soother any more and she willingly gave it up and never asked for it back. There’s the odd time that I’ll catch her pretending she has one or playfully sucking her thumb or one of the other kids’ soothers, but thankfully it’s just a game and not regression. Now to start over with number two… somehow I don’t think it will be quite as easy!
kiki
Wow! 62 comments? What a huge hit! So I just thought I’d share a bit about how we got rid of our pippies. I did let him decide to throw them in the trash, I just encouraged it a little. I started out cutting a little hole in the tip. He seemed fine with it until I cut a little more. He seemed confused. He tried to tell me something was wrong. I cut a little more off and that is when he started throwing them away. We were down to nap and bedtime and I did cut all the pippies at the same time. Worked great for us. I wish my second born would have taken a pippy!
Kat
So I may sound like a creepy stalker but I went back and looked at Baby Bug’s first month of life and it’s so funny to me how much she looks to same. Some people grow up and you’re like wow how did that happen but Baby Bug’s always been the same (and ADORABLE).
Bethiclaus
Our baby’s name is Paz, so my two year old calls it a Pazzi-fier. It makes me laugh. I love the pah monsters. So cute.
Jen - Mom of 4
Don’t be worried about the pah – Morgan (who is now 15) had her nuk until she was almost 3. She actually had almost 20 of them! As her molars cut in she would chew on them and they would eventually crack. As they cracked we had a little ceramony to thrown it away. I explained to her when the last one cracked she would no longer have any nuks. She threw the last one away without a tear and never looked back. I guess the moral of this long tale, is that Bug will be done when she’s ready. Have fun now, it goes by sooo quickly!
Uncle George
B, you are so much fun! The “Pah Monsters” are a riot. And, I think just some of the best psychology I’ve seen!
Remember, my brother Brion had one coupled with a blanket until he was four, and then one day just dropped it, never to be used again. She’s so smart, she’ll figure out when it’s no longer fashionable.
I’m still laughing…Just wonderful. Happy Father’s Day Toby! And to your dad and mine.
U.G.
Yvie
Just to chime in, very creative Pah Monsters! Excellent use of a cold gray day! :)
One Scrappy Gal
PAH! in ASL is the equivalent of “SUCCESS!”
Adria Sha
Those are incredibly adorable. I envy your creativity. Your daughter is especially cute, too. What a blessed mommy you are.
Isabel Kallman
you are so inspiring.