Bye bye, Ted? Wouldn't that be lovely?

I totally lied to my kid tonight. I told her that the Teds that Daisy chewed up this afternoon were the only ones in the house, and that she would have to go to sleep without them, like big girls do.
For those of you who don't know, "Ted" is what we call a pacifier in my house. Back story: I always swore that my child would never use a pacifier. And I stuck to that, until teething time. Once those teeth started giving her trouble, and knowing that the pacifier would ease some of that discomfort, I quickly changed my mind about using the awful little things. Don't misunderstand though, I still, to this day, hate them with a passion. They are just a necessary evil now. Having decided that, yes, I would allow the pacifier, I thereby declared that I would not call it something cutesy or fun, like "Binky," or the like. I said to Brian, "Why can't it just be called 'Ted' or something?" He quickly replied to me, "Ted it is." And Ted it has remained. Really, it's super cute hearing Sydney ask for her Teds.
But anyway.
While Sydney and I were at the gym, and Brian was running errands, Daisy decided to be clever about what to chew on in our absence, and jumped into Sydney's bed and proceeded to make a meal of the Teds in there. My bad, since I usually put the damnable things atop the bookcase. But to be sure, both Teds had lost their bulbs to Daisy's teeth (and I'm sure I'll find them some time tomorrow, right?). Daisy got in trouble, but then I thought that this could certainly work to my advantage about getting Ted out of Sydney's mouth at bedtime. I showed both Teds to Sydney and explained that Daisy had chewed them up. (Sadly, Daisy chewing something up is not a rare occurrence, so Sydney knew exactly what that meant.) We discussed how she would have to sleep without them tonight. She fussed a bit, but was quickly distracted.
And tonight, when I put her in bed and she asked about Ted, I sat on the floor next to her bed and reminded her that Daisy had chewed up the Teds and that she'd have to go to sleep without them. It was a decent discussion, and she understood what I was saying to her. Still, I felt really bad about lying. I've been sitting here, practically on top of the monitor listening to every noise she makes in her room. She fussed for about 15 minutes, chatted for a while beyond that, and finally, it seems just passed out fine. It's been an hour now, and I feel like I may be able to move around the house without waking her up, thereby giving her the chance to remember that she doesn't have Ted. I'm feeling kind of optimistic. Famous last words, right?!

p.s. I'm so pathological in my distaste for the damn Ted that I could only find one or two pictures with her and Ted together. I chose this one because she didn't have Ted actually in her mouth. You'll notice that Ted also is of the clear plastic variety -- the better to be less offensive to my eye. Look at how cute my baby was!!