"Sucker Broke"

I have been debating for a few weeks now as to when and how to take Hope's suckers (pacifiers) away. She is soooo addicted to them at night when she goes to sleep, but here lately, she wants them about an hour or two before bedtime and really gets upset when we deny her requests. It all started when she was little bitty, she went to sleep with a sucker in her mouth, but would wake up at night and not be able to find it, so we put several suckers in her bed so she could always find one. That led to her having one in her mouth and one in each hand as she went to sleep each night. If you only gave her one, she would ask for "more sucker or later on... more sucker please". We weened her off of the two in her hands and Keri weened her off of the one at naptime some time ago, so she was down to one sucker (sometimes two) at night. But here lately, over the past week or two, she gets so fixated on getting her sucker out of her bed after her bath and will whine and cry. Well, last night, I was tired of the fits about her sucker, so I told her I had to wash them and I went to the sink and cut the nipples off two of her suckers and then handed them to her. (Keri's Idea... thank you Keri!)She immediately proceeded to put them in her mouth, but realized there was nothing there but the handle. She looked at me a little shocked and I told her they "broke". She then asked me to put it back together, so I showed her the detached nipples and told her they were broken and I couldn't put them back together. I told her we needed to put them in the trash since they were broken, so she took all 4 pieces (two handles and two nipples) and threw them away! I WAS SOOO PROUD!! She did ask me for more suckers so I found something to pacify her briefly.... it looks like a sucker, but has a rasberry teether on the end of it. She called it a sucker and I told her it was a "chewy". I didn't want her to even use the word sucker anymore. Shortly after that, Wayne got home and we told him her sucker broke and made a big deal of it. I told him there is no going back now and he agreed it was certainly time. So she played with her "chewy" a while and then she tossed it aside and we played ball. Later that night it was time to go to sleep and she kept saying "sucker broke", so she knew each time she thought about asking for her sucker that it was broken. We put her in bed and gave her a new stuffed animal (to go along with the 4 others she usually sleeps with) and kissed her goodnight. I ran into our room to listen to the monitor and it was so funny to hear her saying "sucker broke". Then a few minutes later, she called for me and when I went in to see what she wanted, she requested her sucker. I dug it out of the trash and washed it off and gave it to her. She tried to put it in her mouth and said "sucker broke" and threw it on the floor. She wasn't mad, she just didn't want it anymore! I gave it back to her and again she threw it on the floor and then went to sleep. This morning, she woke up and I was afraid she would forget that her sucker was broken, but she didn't. When I got in her room to get her out of bed, she quickly said "sucker broke". YEAH!! I think we did it! I am so proud of my little girl! We went to Ms. Keri's this morning and told her our good news and Ms. Keri made a big deal about what a big girl she is! I am really proud of her. Tonight will be another test, but so far I am very excited about her progress. She is growing up so fast and isn't a baby anymore! Very exciting, but also sad at the same time. Time goes by so quickly and I try to savor each moment with her. She is an amazing little girl and I am so blessed to have her in my life!!