Breaking The Habit

Of Thumbsucking.... My poor little girl, she takes after her mother in so many ways, one of them being the self soothing dependency she learned as a 2 week old infant. After waking up night after night in the first week we brought her home looking for her paci/binky or whatever you choose to call it, Kara learned a much easier way to soothe herself, her left thumb! Then, other than the occasional midnight feeding, we were never woken up in the middle of the night again to find her sucking device for her. Kara has carried this habit with her through the last 20 months of her life. Along the way she has grown very attached to a lovey called "Mr Bunny" whom she strictly associates with her left thumb. The good thing about this though was that she only seemed to need these 2 companions when falling asleep. That is why to my surprise a couple months ago when she developed a blister on her thumb and we took her to the doctor to have it drained and they informed us it was a staph infection I was completely astonished. Its not like she was one of those kids who went around sucking her thumb all day long, it was only at night and nap time! Luckily the 10 day course of antibiotic killed the infection and we forgot about it from that point forward. I should say that during that 10 days we were told to wrap her thumb up with gauze to prevent her from sucking it. HA! Yeah, after the first day of that the child figured out how to unwrap all of the medical tape and gauze and find her thumb. We then got mean and put a mitten on her hand and wrapped medical tape around that all the way up her arm. She did not like it, but after the 10 days, she went right back to the thumb.
Well, just this past week we had to get meaner. Kara developed another infection, and this time, her doctor told me it was time to break the habit. (Yeah ok doc, got any good suggestions?) Well she didn't, but I found one on-line. It is called "The Thumbguard."



We decided to go with this, because honestly the thought of wrapping our childs hand in a wool mitten with rolls of medical tape just doesn't sound so good, especially when the warm days of spring are around the corner! So, I ordered "the device." The first 24 hours was pure hell! It took my once easy to put down child, over an hour to fall asleep, and then I heard her wake up several times in the night wimpering. Then, to top it all off, she was up at the crack of dawn, wailing, and would not be coaxed back to sleep! My little baby who once used to lie happily in her crib talking to her lovey and sucking her thumb until we came in to get her just wasn't having it any other way! Nap times are harder now too, I have to go in several times to lay her back down before she falls asleep, and while she used to wake up and sometimes sit and play, thats it, when she's up she's up now! But I will take all of this over the infections she seems to attract so easily.

And I'm hoping in the long run she'll thank me. Not like her mother who at the age of 15 was still sucking her thumb at night! It took my younger sister getting braces and me seeing how pretty her new smile was for me to coerce myself into quitting the habit, and let me tell you, it was NOT easy! But I am now the proud owner of a straight smile thankyouverymuch!

Thumbs Up Baby!

Giving it a try!

So I got suckered into this myself now too. I put up the ad sense bar just for fun. I figured, what the heck? I'll try it! My hubby has this program he wrote wootSnoop and anytime somebody clicks on the ad's on his site it gives him a little bit of money. Every now and then I'll see a check come in the mail to him from Google. Not sure how much it is for, probably not much. But I figured, hey! I can do this too! Nothing wrong with getting some cash for free right? We'll see....

Sand Sand Everywhere!!!

Its spring time in the Moxley household! As soon as the 80 degree weather comes I am ready for summer! Last week I found a great deal on Craigslist for a Step 2 sandbox, got it for $20! At first my husband thought it was just another frivolous purchase of mine, but I think I may have persuaded him differently when I showed him how much they sell for at Toys R Us! It was in great condition and even came with some toys! I set it up on the deck and now all I need is to get a pool out there and I will have my own little private beach! Oh wait.... was this supposed to be for my daughter? Well, thats who I said it was for atleast, but secretly, I wanted it just so I could dig my feet into the nice cool, crystal white sand! Curt jokingly stated that I'll probably lay a beach towel in it and lay out in it, but honestly I thought that was a pretty good idea! You see, I am an East coast girl at heart, I grew up on beaches practically my whole childhood. Newport, Narragansett, Duxberry, Wilmington just to name a few. You can take the girl away from the beaches, but you can't take the beaches away from the girl!! Sorry babe!
Ok, so back to the subject, Kara on the other hand, was not so fond of the sand. She will not allow me to take her shoes off in the sandbox, and will only sit on the edge or the outside. Slowly but surely though, I think she'll warm up to it. I will see to it any way! Especially in time for a week long trip out to the beaches of NC this August!!!

On another spring time note, last night was Ladies Night at the local gardening store here in town. I went along with some of the fellow moms from the YUM's group and had a blast! It was so relaxing getting to walk around with out a screaming toddler just looking at all the different kinds of flowers and plants. I picked some out and with the help of one of the very lovely workers there planted them and was assured they were "hardy" flowers! Hopefully I can keep them alive until Memorial Day atleast! Here's a little look at my creation:

Its Potty Time!

Thats right, I bought it this weekend, a training potty! A lot of Kara's little friends have started the process of potty training, so I figured it was time for me to get on it. Kara was very excited when she saw the potty and couldn't wait for me to open it, but then when I attempted to remove her pants to sit on it, she freaked out! She'll sit on it with her clothes on momentarily, but her attention span is about the size of her pinky finger right now.
I know this is going to be WAY more traumatic for me than it is for her. But like they say, no kid ends up going to prom, or walking down graduation aisle with a diaper on, so I just need to chill!!!
The key word here is patience... something I was forced to learn when I had a child, but now that is going to be maximized to the 10th degree!
Wish me luck fellow mummys!

Monsters VS. Aliens

Kara had her first movie theater experience yesterday! We had been talking about doing this with her for a while, since Curt and I are such avid movie goers, we could not wait until our daughter was old enough to attend with us! So, yesterday being the snowy, cold dreary day it was in the middle of April, we decided it was a perfect day to go!
I have to give her props, the kid did good, sitting there for 2 hours, and if they didn't have 30 minutes of previews in the beginning, I think she would have made it through the whole movie. We probably could have gotten through the whole movie, but me being the self-conscious person I am didn't want to "disturb" the other youngsters in the theater.
And I do have to admit, I spent most of the movie admiring her profile staring up at the huge screen chowing down on popcorn. So cute, just a miniature version of her father and I.
So overall, I'd say it was a movie success! It also made me feel a lot more confident about the $100 tickets we just purchased for the Sesame Street Live show next month. I'm positive she'll sit through that, because she is in LOVE w/Sesame Street! Watch out Elmo, here we come!!!!

Now, I wonder if we could take her to "Adventureland" next weekend? (the movie that is). Ha.... I think we'll hold off on that one.