They say necessity is the mother of all invention. Right now my necessity is sleep. Beautiful, uninterrupted sleep. Until last week we were getting plenty of it around our house, but then something happened… we took away the toddler's pacifier. (Insert shudder here.)

It seemed like the perfect time - Abbey had just turned two, and it had been over a year since she had used the "paci" during the day. We were down to using it just at naps and bedtime, and it felt like it should be an easy transition from just-at-night to not-at-all. Boy, were we wrong.

First came the screaming sessions during nap time. "Oh mama, no mama, please mama!" Then the hour or two of moaning, then talking, then moaning again at night. Followed then by the 5 a.m.  wake-up. No, this was clearly not working, at all. What was once our peaceful, albeit chaotic, home was turned upside-down last Thursday, and four days later, I'm just done with it.

Which leads us to the invention of the "Where Bear." Where Bear is just a plain-old run of the mill teddy bear that, quite honestly, my daughter never showed interest in before. But given a new life, maybe some forged documents, a pair of vintage aviators, and an itinerary - this bear just may become cool yet.

Here's how it's going to work. Tomorrow morning Abbey will meet the new and improved Where Bear, and he (or she?) will be able to come with us wherever we go. The grocery store, music class, the playground … wherever our adventures take us, Where Bear will be there too.

The hope is that he (or she) will became the new "hot thing" in Abbey's life. Out with the paci, in with the bear.

We'll see where it takes us. Hopefully it takes us to better soothing techniques, and at long last… sleep.