I ended the night very frustrated by my oldest daughter, Ava. She turned 5 in October, and we have been on some level working on her quitting thumb-sucking for about a year. At first it was pretty passive - I would praise her if I noticed she was not sucking it, really only focusing on daytime. But especially since her birthday we've really been working hard to rid her of the habit all together. We've put moleskin on her thumb; we've covered her hand with a glove; most recently we've been wrapping her hand in an Ace bandage so she couldn't get to her thumb. Tonight Ben went in to kiss the girls a few minutes after I had put them in bed and turned off the light. He comes back out with Ava... and her bandage off her hand. He's wrapping her back up, not understanding why I've suddenly gotten so upset. To realize that she has probably been doing this for days if not weeks made me almost sick to my stomach. That she would be deceiving us like that... I know my kids won't be perfect angels all the time, but I was pretty down about it all. Then I logged on to Facebook and saw this picture had been posted by one of the assistant teachers at the dance studio:
This is my daughter Ava, who may drive me crazy from time to time, but who has a smile that lights up a room, and a spirit that brings joy to anyone she meets. I love her more than words can say, and will bring this image with me to bed tonight as I dream of a thumb-sucking-free future.
No comments:
Post a Comment