No More Mr. Thumbs...

Or should I say... no more Mr. Thumb Sucker! Cole has been a non-thumb sucker for a whole week now!

Last week one of Rob's friends at wok sent him home with 'Mavala', a product you paint on your nails like polish to keep from biting your nails, and is also recommended for thumb suckers.  My first reaction was 'No way! that is mean', but then I thought of the slight overbite he is developing.  So before I would use this method I had to try it out for myself so I painted a nail and tried it out.. Blech!  It is a horrible bitter taste that takes awhile to go away, but I thought it was going to be peppery and painful.. so the next day would be D-day. 

Last Friday morning we had a heart to heart with Cole about how he would be an even bigger boy if he stopped sucking his thumb.. and conveniently told him that if he could stop sucking his thumb we could go to the toy store and pick something out.  That did the trick.. he declared "I am going to stop sucking my thumb"  We painted both thumbnails for back-up with the Mavala since he is "ambi-thumb-trous"!  All day and even nap he stuck to his guns and kept his thumb out of his mouth all by himself.  But during the night is was purely habit and we heard random outbursts of "YUCKY" throughout the night when he accidentally put his thumb into his mouth.

One week later he still is not sucking his thumb!  He's been cured!  Of course for the past 3+ years he as fallen asleep with the aid of his thumb.. so we are called upstairs several times at the beginning of the night to: help him go to the bathroom (again), get water, pick up the stuffed animal that fell out of his bed, cover him back up, or just say "hi" we are hoping he find a new way of comforting himself real soon!  But we are real proud of the little guy.. and tomorrow we go get his reward.. well deserved if you ask me!

And he's also a great helper to Dad during log splitting time!