If plastics are to be the future, we've made the decision that Charlotte should learn about them now. It seemed like the simplest way to introduce the concept of plastics was through the pacifier.

However, the pacifier -- depending on who you to talk to -- is either another in the line of great innovations or ways in which parents willfully neglect their children. And both camps have the literature to convince you of their point. As such, for the first month of her existence, the baby operated sans pacifier as indecision on the part of her parents meant that the baby corks stayed in the closet.

We've decided to take the same approach to pacifier advice as that offered in "Destructive Doggies: Solving Chewing & Digging Problems," a pamphlet that came with the doggie training of Charlie:

Provide your dog with stimulating chew toys, increased play and exercise, and perhaps even a second pet. Of course, give some extra thought to the solution of a second pet, since you could end up with two diggers instead of one.

When questioning decisions, Kate and I try to decide if it's going to result in a second digger. In other words, some solutions just create more problems.* But in this case, a pacifier was just a pacifier. Below you can see our daughter ruminating on our decision.

So far Charlie has been unable to convince Charlotte to help her dig holes in the backyard. But we've got our eye on the baby because once she starts crawling, the last thing we want is two diggers.

*For the record, I recognize that in order to come to grips with a decision of pacifiers, I considered our family policy on dog chew toys.