No Mo Na-Na

Talk about your major milestones -- finishing treatment for leukemia was pretty big, but it pales in comparison to what happened today:  Dayssi took all of her na-nas to the hospital in a little plastic baggie and gave them away, just handed them out like presents to all of her favorite people, with a big smile, just like that.  She asked only once this afternoon if she could use one when she got home, and then just grinned when I reminded her that they were all gone and that she was done with them.  After dinner she crashed on the couch while watching Peter Pan with India (who finds out tomorrow what role she will play in her musical theatre camp's production of Peter Pan -- more on that later).  I put her in bed and haven't heard a peep.

Dayssi had her first na-na at 10 months -- which is kind of late to start -- and she was instantly hooked.  I have dreaded this day ever since.  But now that it has come and almost gone (seven hours until morning) without incident, all I can say is:  Thank you G*d for creating the na-na, and for guiding my child to it when you did.   It has gotten us through so . . . much . . . crap.

Thank you also for giving us the strength and the wisdom to let her keep using it, until she was almost 5, despite the obnoxious gratuitous comments of many many complete strangers who have felt compelled to tell her that she should take it out of her mouth because pacifiers are for babies.  Who are these freaking people, and why are they bothered by Dayssi's pacifier??

Anyway, our love affair with the ubiquitous na-na appears to be over.  On to bigger and better things.