Taggie Troubles

I've got problems. Well, ok, NJ has problems. Really, the little guy just has one major problem: He's thrown taggie overboard, yet again, and now having to suffer through a nap, kicking and screaming just to let me know how he feels. Honestly, I am really stumped on what to do.

Let me back up: NJ's never been a fan of the pacifier- he's gone the thumb sucking route instead. A friend of ours gave us this wonderful little supper soft thing with tags all around that we loving refer to as Taggie. Taggie quickly became a sleep prop and now NJ's totally attached. As soon as he gets taggie in his hand, the thumb goes in the mouth and ah, that feeling of total peace washes over him. In fact, I even made three more just like it so we could always have one handy.

But lately, he's been throwing it out of his crib- I don't mean it accidentally slips through the crib rails, I mean it's laying on the other side of the room. Then NJ starts screaming, I go in to check on him, he points to taggie, I hand it back, lay him down, and walk quietly out of the room only to have the process start over a few minutes later.

So, a few weeks ago, I told him, "Hold on to taggie really tight because if you loose him or throw him, he's gone for the rest of the nap and you won't have him until the next sleeping time." Of course he threw it and we had to endure an hour of him crying with me checking on him every 10-15 minutes to try to console him and calm him. It was especially hard because I never really know what he understands. But, the next nap time, WA-LA, he kept taggie with him!

Then the next day, his dad laid him down for the nap. Either NJ was testing dad, or testing the lack of a warning, but he threw taggie and we endured another hour of crying and checking. Then we had a few glorious days without any taggie throwing. I thought, "Wow, it worked- how smooth was that?"

But then came Christmas and grandparents and cousins and now we've regressed. Some naps he'll do ok, some, not so much. I've tried giving him once chance, but that didn't seem to help. In fact, I think the lack of consistency just made the problem worse.

What do I do? Do I take it away completely? He's only 16 months old! That seems so soon to take it away! Plus, if I take it away it'll probably just push him to be more reliant on his thumb, right? -and I can't just take his thumb away! Then there's also the fact that the taggie is good in so many circumstances- like when he's in the car and we want him to sleep or when a babysitter is taking care of him... But right now, it's just causing problems... ACK! ARG! UG! What do I do???