The Thumb and The Sucking

I sucked my thumb.  I sucked it far longer than a child should suck their thumb.  To this day, there is a nice thumb-shaped indention in my upper palette, although my thumb no longer feels at home there as I did grow out of the thumb-sucking habit.

The strange thing is, I'm not sure which thumb I sucked.  When I think about which thumb would taste the best, I mentally gravitate towards the left thumb.  But I'm not altogether sure.  I have memories that one thumb was inferior to the other thumb and didn't "work right" but I could be remembering that wrong and I may have had no thumb preference.  Still, if I had to put money on it, I would bet the left thumb was my thumb of choice.

I'm not sure how long I sucked my thumb, but I am fairly certain it was until I was at least five-years-old.  My parents tried to get me to stop by being rational with me.  Imagine trying to be rational and logical to a five-year-old and you guess how far that got them.  So they got this bitter liquid they put on my thumb so I wouldn't want to suck it.  I remember that unsavory liquid. 

I have a specific memory of being out on the deck in what feels like late spring or early summer and my mother was explaining to me that this liquid would help me to stop sucking my thumb.  But I didn't want to stop sucking my thumb.  I liked sucking my thumb.  I also remember that I decided there was an easy solution to this terrible tasting situation, and that was to go wash my thumb.   I remember heading into the house, leaving my mother there on the deck to go wash.

I'm not sure how long they tried with the bitters, but at some point I did stop sucking my thumb.  My daughter likes her pacifier.  My son does too.  Hopefully the transition away from mouth-soothing behaviors as they go to sleep won't be too traumatic to them.  I think they're too old to develop a thumb or finger-sucking  dependency.  I hope.

The Big Boy Update:  WAIL.  What is it lately with his fits of anger in the middle of the night?  He wakes up and makes very loud noises.  Strike that, I'm not sure that he's really awake, but he's loud.  We're talking about letting him work it out, but we've had house guests for a bit and I think we're going to wait until everyone has gone before we see just how long he'll pitch a fit before he calms down.  He needs to work things out for himself in the middle of the night, hopefully he'll figure it out quickly.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I am so unhappy momma.  Why is she crying?  It's too early for a nap and I checked and she's not dirty.  Yet she persists in coming over, being very unhappy and looking at me like she needs something.  I checked her diaper again, this time from the front of her pants.  Ohhhhh.  Ugh.  Dirty diaper that migrated to the front region and no wonder she's so unhappy.  Clean diaper and she's fallen asleep on a blanket beside the computer as a much relieved and more comfortable child.

Fitness Update:  Four miles this morning before my final eye surgeries at 10:30.  My neighbor was not only recovered from Saturday, but she was ready to run much longer if we'd had time.  I did something that was more fun today than I would have expected.  After Uncle Jonathan and I left my neighbor to head home at the end of the run, he challenged me to sprint the last bit.  We sprinted the block-and-a-half and he beat me at the very end by pulling out some crazy long-legged extra speed boost.  I was surprised how well I was able to sprint for that short distance.  I told him I was definitely signed up for the speed work with him, which includes sprints, in the future.

Someone Once Said:   Everything ought to be turned upside down occasionally; it lets in air and light.