Gloves and the Finger Sucking Miracle

Our finger sucking days are over!!

Annie has sucked her first 2 fingers on her right hand for as long as we can remember.  It happens periodically in the day and is sure to happen the minute she sees, feels or even thinks about her blanket.

Here's a finger sucking trip down memory lane.

3 months old

Probably 10 months old (geez they all look so little)

Probably 15 or 16 months

This is the summer right before she turned two.  Awesome hotel shot!

2 1/2.  Cute pic!

This was during our power outage in November.  Lovin the hat.

 Annie is 3 1/2.  I have been feeling like we needed to work on stopping the finger sucking and had a conversation with my friend Bethany of how she helped her kids stop.  They wore gloves and were rewarded if they had their gloves on with a piece of bubble gum.  She would do glove checks periodically (and frequently) throughout the day and within 2 weeks, her 3 thumb sucking kids had kicked the habit.  Annie is a gum lover so I thought we'd give it a whirl.

We started mid last week.  She and Whit had fun wearing gloves all day (and we hid her blanket in the closet so she wouldn't be tempted to lay with it or drag it downstairs if they were watching a movie).  Night came and we told her that if she still had the gloves on when she woke up there would be bubble gum in the morning.  I didn't think she'd be able to do it.  We had to give her some ideas on what to do with her hands while she was trying to fall asleep.  But when we went to check on her, gloves still on.

She made it day 1 and then stopped even wearing gloves in the day.  We stuck to focusing on night time (and hiding the blanket in the day)

Success on day 2, day 3, day 4.  By day 5 or 6 she didn't even want the gloves at night. 

 She was sick this week and the blanket got pulled out during the day quite a bit.  I was nervous she'd regress but she hasn't had them in her mouth at all.  I don't know where this ability or determination came from.  Those fingers have been in her mouth for 3 1/2 years.  It's been bitter sweet.  So proud she is so big and able to do hard things, so sad seeing her seem so big all at the same time.  My baby is growing up.

Congrats my big Annie girl!  We are so proud of you.

Mary said we should write a book called 'Gloves in the Night'.  I think Bethany had something going with this glove idea.  Maybe we'll become children's book authors now. :)

Funny

I almost forgot about this story but saw it as I was flipping through my journal today.  A while back we were talking to the kids about the story of Lot and Abraham in the Old Testament as I was prepping to teach on it for Seminary.  At one part of their story, the Lord protects Lot's home from men who are trying to harm them as they are living in Sodom.  We asked the kids how they were protected and here's the conversation:

Andrew:  It was magic
Matt:  There is no such thing as magic
Mary:  What about Santa Claus?
Whitney:  What about the tooth fairy?
We then explain how Heavenly Father doesn't use magic, but uses His power
Mary:  So how do you explain Santa?
Matt:  With difficulty

Ha!  And then it was time to finish breakfast and get moving on the school day.  Matt and I were dying!!

A Sick Bunch

I've turned lazy.  I am a lazy blogger these days and then when I get around to finally blogging, I'm too lazy to come up with a creative title.  Hopefully I'll turn non-boring soon. 

This has been a semi-sick week at the Singer house.  Mary's asthma has kicked into high gear (thank you weird changing weather, seasonal allergy stuff kicking in, and the tail end of a cold).  She's been a coughing machine and has been hooked up to her nebulizer more often than preferred.  I think all week I've had a prayer of gratitude for that machine.  I think we'd be in the hospital without it.

After 1 1/2 days off school, the cough is under control.  By the second day she was enjoying the time home with her sisters.

Annie's had a weird health week too.  Threw up a few times Tuesday and then shuffles between being out of it and exhausted to being normal and happy.  These pictures are from yesterday.  She woke up around 6:30 and then was back asleep in our bed at 7 and slept til 8:30.  By 9:45 I found her trying to sleep on the sofa and a few minutes later moved to the obviously more comfortable spot (the floor).  She slept til 11:15.

Kid happenings

Thought I'd capture a memory or two of the kids lately.

First, Whitney and Annie (or Whit and Anne as they are preferring to call themselves)

What good buddies these girls are.  They dress up together, they play together, they color together, they do everything together.  Not much has changed from when Annie was born in terms of how close they are.  I hope it lasts forever.

My dressed up silly girls!

My bathtime girls.  Sometimes, I think they'd stay in there for hours.

Last weekend, Whit and Annie had back to back birthday parties to attend, so we used some of the time to take Mary and Andrew to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum. It was a fun afternoon spending some two on two time with our other set of best buds.  These two do everything together as well, from legos, to drawing, to telling stories, to playing outside.  

 Mary was excited to find this picture of the "Charter Oak" tree with a frame made from the real Charter Oak tree.  She's been learning CT history this year and could tell us all about this famous tree.  I think it was her highlight of the museum.

Andrew's Concert

Andrew (or I guess I should say "Andy" since that is how he is known at school) had his 1st grade music concert a few weeks back.  He was excited to get to play the drums.

Here he is with his class--spot him on the back row.

And here's our drummer

Afterwards with his dragon art work

 Happy siblings!

Andrew and his good friend, Emmy, were lucky to be in the same class this year.

What a wonderful teacher....Mrs. Madigan.  We love her. 

Birthday Boy

 There's a 7 year old in the house.  How did that occur? 

Andrew is our lego lovin', bike ridin' boy so it's no wonder that this birthday was full of Legos and a much needed new bike.  Yea for awesome grandparents to get this boy all Hero Factory and Ninjago'ed out.  I think he's set for a while.

It's a non-party year but I still love to make them whatever cake they want.  This year he wanted a Ninjago Snake cake, "Scales" to be specific.  I did my best and Andrew was pleased.  He definitely knows how to charm a cake maker. 

7 Things About Andrew--

silly, lego-maniac, 1st grader, Wii lover, math man, artist, and...well, the boy's got rhythm.

We love you Andrew!!!

Hair!

 Annie has great hair.  It's long and thick and has body which means I've had a lot of fun playing with it lately.  I've found a good website for girl hair dos:  

http://www.princesshairstyles.com/

Here are a few samples of some fun styles we've done.  Now maybe I need to make some cute hairbows or something. :)