Last night, while visiting a friend with a new baby, we were discussing the pros and cons of pacifier use, and I mentioned that one potential drawback to giving your baby a pacifier is that you might end up with a kid like mine: two and a half years old and still dependent on the pacifier to get to sleep.

Not half an hour later, I got a text from my husband, who was trying to put the girls to bed, wanting to know where the heck said pacifier might be.

I texted back that I had no clue, then fretted to myself the whole rest of my visit about what torture he must be going through at home, trying to put her to bed without it.

And...what do you know? I returned to a scene of total serenity: kids all asleep in bed, husband and cat asleep on the couch. According to Eric, Evie whined a little bit but then went to sleep just fine, even without the pacifier.

I was seriously thrilled that this occurred so relatively smoothly; both our other two required a night (or two) of hard-core tears when the beloved pacifier was taken away. I'd been delaying pacifier-removal in part because the three girls are all in one room now, and I didn't want to subject the older two to Evie's (potential) screaming.

So. Eric apparently has the magic touch, as far as non-pacifier bedtimes go. So later on, when I found the missing pacifier, I hid it away in an interior pocket of my purse, and when Evie forlornly asked where it was this morning, I lied straight to her face. "Gosh, I don't know."

But now, it's quiet time. My sacred hour of getting-things-done time. And Beth (home from an early release day at school) is reading (out loud) to herself on the couch. And Lucy is doing the same thing in my bedroom. And Evie...oh, Evie. I know that if she'd had her pacifier, she would have been out like a light. She told me, before I laid her down, how tired she was. But instead, she's sitting on her bed singing songs to herself. It's cute as all get-out. And she's being very well-behaved. But she's *not* sleeping. And that means she's not going to be a pretty picture later on this afternoon.

Now that I'm six years in to this stay-at-home mom thing, I'm feeling like I'm pretty good at it. I know what I'm doing. I have my little routine all set. But part of the routine is having a guaranteed hour or two each afternoon where I know my kids won't disturb me. Now...faced with the possibility of a non-napped 2-year-old to deal with for the rest of the day...I'm *almost* tempted to pull that little blue pacifier out of the bottom of my purse and throw it in to her. So far, I'm being strong. But I'm left pondering the question:

Is this the end of naptime as I know it? And if it is...will my world go on?