Baby Brothers & Purple Pacifiers

“Whaaa!” Jessie’s baby brother cried out from his crib.

Jessie ran to Mikey’s room to see what the fuss was about. “You’re supposed to be taking a nap,” she said. Mikey sniffled and whimpered. Then he crinkled up his face to cry again. “Oh no!” said Jessie. She quickly grabbed a pacifier and plugged it into the baby’s mouth. Mikey sucked eagerly on the pacifier—nom, nom, nom—as Jessie left the room, feeling proud that she had stopped his crying so quickly.

But it wasn’t long before Mikey started up again. “Whaaa! Whaaa!” Jessie hurried down the hall to give him his pacifier again, but she stopped when she saw her mom rocking Mikey to sleep. The pacifier lay on the dresser out of his reach.

When the baby was quiet again, Jessie whispered, “Mom, wouldn’t it be better to just give Mikey his pacifier when he cries?”

“No,” Mom replied. “I don’t think he needed a pacifier. He just needed to go to sleep; he was very tired.”

Later that day, Jessie and her friend Justin were playing a game in the living room. Mikey sat on his blanket chewing on a toy bear when something caught his eye. He dropped the bear and crawled toward the sofa.

“What’s Mikey doing?” asked Justin.

“I don’t know,” said Jessie, shrugging. Mikey peered under the sofa then shoved his fat little fist underneath, feeling around for something.

“I hope he doesn’t find a bug,” said Justin. “I remember when Ellie found a dead beetle under a chair and almost ate it.”

Jessie gasped and gave Justin a horrified look. “Ewww! That would be totally disgusting,” she said. “We better stop him.” Jessie quickly moved toward Mikey.

But it was too late. The baby already had something in his hand and was about to put it in his mouth! “No!” Jessie squealed as she dove toward her brother. She grabbed the object from his hand. “Don’t eat that,” she commanded. Jessie slowly opened her hand to see what she had snatched from Mikey—afraid it might be a dead creature. But to her surprise, it was just a purple pacifier. “Oh, that’s all,” she said with a sigh of relief.

Mikey sat back and stared at his big sister. Not only had she startled him, but she had also taken his paci (pass-ee), which he had worked so hard to get. Mikey’s lower lip began to quiver then his eyes scrunched up as his mouth opened wide.

“Uh-oh!” said Justin. “I think he’s going to explode!”

Jessie looked up in a panic. She didn’t want Mikey to start hollering again. “Here!” she tossed the pacifier to her brother, who picked it up and popped it into his mouth.

“Phew! That was close.” Justin and Jessie both sighed in relief as they watched Mikey suck contentedly on the little purple pacifier.

Just then, Jessie’s mom walked in, holding a baby bottle. “Mikey, it’s time for your—what is that?” She pointed to the pacifier and looked over at Jessie.

“Mikey found it under the sofa,” Jessie explained. “He was about to cry again, so I let him have it.”

“Jessie,” said Mom, “I’m afraid Mikey’s getting into a bad habit. I’m trying to get him to stop crying for his paci. I don’t want him to feel like he needs it all the time.”

“Oh, sorry,” Jessie apologized. “I thought he needed it. He acted like he really wanted it.”

“Well, I think he’ll do fine if we just give him a toy or something instead. He doesn’t need a pacifier.”

Mom took the pacifier from Mikey and gave him his bottle. Glurp-glurp-glurp—Mikey slurped noisily. “See, all he really needed was a good snack,” said Mom, kissing the baby’s head.

That evening, Jessie was reading a story with her dad while Mikey sat in his walker, clunking his toys on the tray and talking to himself, “Ba, ba, ba.”

As Dad and Jessie continued to read, they didn’t notice how Mikey’s quiet noises grew louder and louder. Finally, they looked up from their book and saw that Mikey was crying big tears and pointing at something.

“What’s the matter, Mikey?” asked Dad.

“I think he wants this,” said Jessie, reaching for the purple pacifier they had found earlier.

Mikey reached for the pacifier, whining, “Passeee!”

“Go ahead, Jessie,” said Dad. “Give it to him so we can finish our story.”

Jessie poked Mikey’s paci into his mouth just as her mom walked in. “Hey, you guys,” Mom said, “Mikey doesn’t need that.” She picked up a cold teething ring and traded it to Mikey for the pacifier. Jessie plugged her ears—she was sure Mikey would holler. But to her surprise, he just sat quietly, chewing on the soft toy ring.

“Wow!” said Jessie. “I thought for sure he’d want his paci back.”

“That’s what I keep telling you,” said Mom. “He doesn’t need it. A pacifier won’t make his mouth feel better when he’s got new teeth growing in, but this teething ring will.”

Jessie turned to her brother. “Well, what do you think of that?” She set the pacifier on Mikey’s tray. Mikey reached for it, but instead of picking it up, he swiped at it with his hand, knocking it to the floor, and then—Mikey giggled! He gave a drooly smile at Jessie then continued to chew on the teething ring, chomp-chomp-chomp.

Jessie laughed. “Hey, I guess you don’t need a paci after all.”

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