Wow

That's all I have to say. Ella Ann no longer sucks her thumb! Can YOU believe it? She has sucked her thumb since the day I took away her pacifier when she was 3 months old. Her thumb, combined with her bobbie/horsey, has been a constant source of comfort for Ella Ann since she was an itty bitty baby. I have never really pushed her to give up the thumb because my theory is, Life is hard enough. Let her enjoy this one little thing while she is small. She will eventually stop. Well Spencer disagreed and that was fine. So we started telling her she could only suck her thumb when she was in bed and we had left the room after reading books each nap and bed time. She did that for nearly a year. A couple of weeks ago we were in the baby doll aisle at Target and Ella Ann was admiring several of the babies, as usual. A light bulb suddenly went off in my head and I realized I could work the "I want that baby!!!" for the greater good of Ella Ann's decrepit thumb! I asked her while we were standing there what baby she would like to take home. She immediately pointed to the most annoying baby (one that is motion detected and crawls and coos) and said, "THAT ONE!" I then explained to her that we will start a sticker chart when we got home and once she got 20 stickers on the chart for not sucking her thumb then we would come back and purchase the baby. Boy was she ready! She immediately started jumping up and down and saying, "I won't suck my thumb EVER again Mommy!!!" Yeah right.

So the first night we put a band aid on her thumb to keep her from sucking it (it's really an automatic reflex by now so there was no way she could actually stop without something to keep it out of her mouth). She started crying and whining asking me to take it off so I reminded her of the little baby waiting for her at the store and that this would be the hardest night. If she could just do it this one night she would make it the rest of the way. Ella Ann actually fell asleep quickly that night so we were surprised. The next morning she was ecstatic to put her very first sticker on her chart. She was SO proud of herself, as were Spencer and I! The next few nights were kind of rough and she had one set back, which we took 3 stickers off because of that (it was outright disobedience...longer story) but she got back on track quickly and she easily made it to 20 stickers. When we would go to Target we would visit her baby and she would be encouraged even more to not suck her thumb. Yesterday she put on her 20th sticker and we went to Target that afternoon to buy her baby. She loves it and she told me, "I love my new baby Mommy. I will never play with any other baby again!" Good. I can purge. Now when she goes to bed at night it is minus the band aid, she never whines or asks to suck her thumb and falls asleep easily without it. I am truly shocked! I am very proud of my big girl! This is quite an accomplishment for her! I am also excited to say that she has a normal thumb now...it no longer is dry, scaly and with a disgusting looking nail!

So proud of her accomplishment yesterday before school!

The finished chart. She wanted me to pick out the Christmas (??) sticker each day.

With Ellie this morning. Side note, all animals and babies are a form of Ella Ann's name....Elle, Ellie, Ella, etc. I didn't even have to ask her what the baby's name was going to be.