Inspired by the story I've written for Sunday's Life section, I thought I'd test the waters.

As I put Sofia to bed the other night, I asked her: "Sweetie, you know you're a big girl now, and big girls don't need to always have a binky."

She lay in her crib, pacifier slowly bobbing in her mouth, clutching her "bubba" -- that's her blanket. Then she said, "No."

"Well, honey," I continued, "There are little babies in this world who don't have any binkies. But you're a big girl now, so you can give your binky to a little baby who needs one."

"No."

This obviously wasn't going well.

"Well, OK honey, just keep it in your head that one day you will be able to give your binky to a little baby, and that would be a very good thing."

She stared at me blankly, probably thinking of how tired she was and this line of thinking was probably going to induce a nightmare of lost binkies. So, I quit while I was ahead.

This morning, as we walked into school, she offered to carry the plastic bag of pacifiers I had borrowed for the photo to go with my story. "We have to give them back to the babies," I told her.

"Yeah. Binkies babies," she said, smiling, obviously happy she had a job to do.

She proudly gave the bag to one of the teachers in the infant room, beaming that she had given the pacifiers to the little babies who needed them.

Well, perhaps there's hope yet.