What is it about Kenya that has made us shed some of our bad habits? We are so thrilled to announce that both our kids have stopped sucking their fingers! Yes, as their parents we do believe that this is a minor miracle.
For seven years, Anna favored the 3rd and 4th fingers on her right hand. We thought it was rather cute when she was a baby and a toddler. It actually made life easier at times- we didn't have to go searching for a lost pacifier in the middle of the night or on long trips away from home. As each birthday came and went though, we started to worry that she might be the only graduating high school senior sucking her fingers.
Then along came her younger brother, who didn't help the situation at all. Leo was a thumb sucker. Yes, he also was very adorable with his bad habit. We tried for awhile giving him pacifiers. He would entertain a new pacifier for a short time, then we would find it on the floor and his favorite thumb back in his mouth.
We tried various things in the last few years to get them to stop, especially Anna. We're not quite sure why this time, it worked. As if the transition to Kenya wasn't hard enough on them, we,the mean parents that we are, decided to bribe them to stop sucking their fingers the first week here.
We had two bags of Sour Patch candies- the only two bags we brought from the US. The deal was both Anna and Leo had to stop sucking their fingers for one week. If they went seven whole days without it, they each got an entire bag to eat whenever they pleased. We thought for sure that we would be enjoying the Sour Patches ourselves at the end of the week. But low and behold, they stopped and never looked back. It was really adorable how they encouraged each other through the long torturous week. We were never so happy to watch them eating an entire bag of candy for Sunday breakfast!
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