Smiling Mom

A few weeks ago a doll sho­wed up at my door to review.  Need­less to say, I was thri­lled that it hap­pe­ned to appear at my house the very day that Dr. Rabitz tur­ned to eClaire and said, “eClaire, you must stop suc­king your thumb today.”

Since this blog has basi­cally tur­ned into a photo jour­nal lately…I thought I’d just con­ti­nue the theme for one more post.

“Yes Mom.  I will rise to the occasion.”

The cha­llenge: Five naps and bed­ti­mes without suc­king her thumb.

The result?: Suc­cess!!  eClaire suc­cess­fully put her­self to sleep 10 dif­fe­rent times without suc­king her thumb.  Unfor­tu­na­tely for us, her going to sleep rou­tine which use to take less that 2.5 seconds exten­ded itself to a little more than an hour each night.  Sigh.  All good things must come to an end.

eClaire’s End of Thumb Suc­king Ceremony

“Look at me, Mommy, I did it!!  I don’t suck my thumb any­more. AND I can ‘fake smile’ with the best of them!”

The anti­ci­pa­tion is killing her as Daddy takes the new doll out of it’s box.

Sweet suc­cess.

A proud Daddy with his daugh­ter and her doll.  (Notice the real smile that’s now on eClaire’s face?  Precious..)

I’d like to say that this has been 100% suc­cess­ful, but in all honesty it has not.  eClaire still often sneaks her thumb at night,  Old habits die slowly.  This daugh­ter of mine crea­ted a blis­ter on her fin­ger in utero because she was suc­king on it even then.

But the suc­cess?  Both we and eClaire now know she’s not com­ple­tely depen­dant on her thumb for sleep.  Armed with this know­ledge, I hope that quit­ting the thumb once and for all is just around the corner!

I will never for­get that day.

Hubby, who was pre­viously Boy­friend, called my apart­ment early in the morning.

Hubby: SM, wake up.

SM: What’s going on?

Hubby: We’ve been attac­ked.  I have to go into work early today.  Our city is on high alert.

SM: What do you mean??!!

Hubby: Go turn on your TV.

And on it went.

I woke up my room­mate and we sat in front of our tele­vi­sion, jaw firmly plan­ted on the ground. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. After sit­ting, paraly­zed, for far too long, both my room­mate and I hea­ded to work. Our stu­dents would be wai­ting.

To read more from this post, click on over to Sili­con Valley Moms Blog.

Seriously, BC said that to me today.    My baby is all grown up.

These are a few pic­tu­res of BC last year just before school began.

Look at those chunky baby-esque cheeks.

A.Dor.Able.

And then today, one year later.  We’ll call this pic­ture Rico.  Suave, that is.

And then there’s eClaire, who coin­ci­den­tally, thought today was her first day of school as well…oops.

BC just before he ente­red his new class.

Pla­ying with old friends from last year.

eClaire seconds before she rea­li­zed that this was in fact NOT her class­room and she was hea­ding home to take a nap.  Next year baby.  Next year.

One more year until kin­der­gar­ten.  Only one more year.

Yup.  Four.  I had four Cab­bage Patch Kids.

Know how I remem­ber??  Each time I broke an arm as a child I got a ‘Kid.

Four.  Four breaks. Four ‘Kids.

Break #1 & Cab­bage Patch Kid #1

My brother dared me to hang by my toes from the mon­key bars at my grandma’s house.  If you know me per­so­nally, you know that I’m up for a challenge.

Yup.  Bro­ken arm.  What can I say, I was four…common sense elu­ded me that day.

Break #2 & Cab­bage Patch Kids #2

I was stan­ding on the balance beam at age five wai­ting for my turn to do my somer­sault when I began to day­dream when whoops, I fell.

Bro­ken arm num­ber two and the second addi­tion to my Cab­bage Patch Family.

Break #3…Cabbage Patch Kid #3

I was rollers­ka­ting in my front yard around the age of seven and trip­ped over a small rock.  At this point my pedia­tri­cian was begin­ning to know me by name… much to my mom’s chagrin.

Break #4…Cabbage Patch Kid #4

Six months later just before I ente­red second grade, on my mom’s birth­day in fact, I was pla­ying soc­cer in my back yard with my brothers and some friends when I trip­ped and fell.  I infor­med my mom that my arm was bro­ken and she reac­ted EXACTLY as I would.  It went something like, “Uh huh, Nette, just rest it for awhile… you’ll be fine.”  Awhile later I was still com­plai­ning about the pain when my mom took me down for another x-ray.  (It’s a won­der that I could even get preg­nant as an adult with the amount of x-rays that I’ve had in my life!) This time I, again, broke my arm.

So it’s clear that I was a fan of Cab­bage Patch Kids!  Hell, if my mom wouldn’t just go out and buy me one I’d up the ante and break my arm!

Hehe, ahem…

About a month ago I recei­ved an email from Team Mom let­ting me know that they’d be sen­ding me an new and very exci­ting NEW item to review.

Ladies and gent­le­men, please wel­come my daughter’s new and very exci­ting authen­tic, limi­ted time release Cab­bage Patch Kid, Jac­que­line Edith.

Kinda cute, right? Looks a bit like eClaire, no?  But really… do you think that I’d hand off a BRAND NEW CABBAGE PATCH KID for nothing in return???  Pu-LEASE!

____________________________

Stay tuned for the next edi­tion where Nette says to eClaire, “In FIVE DAYS Jac­que­line Edith can be yours IF and only if you stop suc­king your thumb.”

Dun-da-dun!