"Mo" the monster

I'd like to introduce everyone to our newest family member..."Mo" the Monster! The deed has been done, and we are free of the "bite" (pacifier). It wasn't nearly as painful as I anticipated. This morning I took Ellie to So Childish and she chose a stuffed animal to have as her new bedtime buddy. She perused the store, and although I tried to steer her towards these cool baby dolls, she found Mo and instantly fell in love with him. He is super soft and cuddly, and seems to be doing the trick. He hasn't left her side since she picked him up - he even watched her take a bath and sat at the dinner table with us. I asked Ellie if her monster was a boy or a girl, and she said "He's just a boy, and his name is just Mo the Monster". Such a creative little mind...
At nap time Ellie whined for a "bite" and cried a little. The most important part of this whole exchange at the toy store is that Ellie handed the bite to the cashier in exchange for Mo. So when she asked for a bite, I told her we didn't have it anymore and she knew she had given it away. We probably had about 10minutes of crying, whining and complaining at nap time. Not that big of a deal. Tonight she asked for a bite again, but put up even less of a fuss. The only downside I can see so far is that she's not excited to go to bed! When she had her bite she was only allowed to have it in the bed, so getting her to take naps or go to bed at night was a snap. Hopefully this will wear off.
She's also been talking about moving into her big girl bed... I'm not sure if we're ready for two big transitions in the same week, or even the same month.
Ellie is already manipulating Brant and he doesn't even realize it. It's kind of cute, but also scary as this is just a glimpse into the teenage years. Tonight at dinner Ellie was playing with her milk, as usual. She likes to dip her fingers in it, then lick them, or dip whatever we're eating into the milk and then suck the milk off. Sounds fantastic, right? So tonight she had carrots that she was dipping into her cup of milk, and Brant took the milk away from her. She knows what she is doing is wrong, but just wants to see how far she can push it. We were also eating pizza (super delicious). Ellie switched to eating the pizza, then said "my mouth is burning - I need my milk!" and Brant just gave it to her. She had this huge smile on her face and said "thank you Daddy!", then proceeded to dip her pizza into the milk. Her mouth was not burning...not at all. So we took it away from her again - this time for good. She tried telling us that her mouth was burning again, but we didn't go for it and she was fine. I've already started praying for the strength that we'll need for the upcoming years with her...