Biker Chick

Almost four years ago, as I was nearing the end of my first pregnancy, I would often feel the most peculiar little movement repeatedly in my tummy. As I asked others and had them feel, we came to the conclusion that these little movements were little Chloe's hiccups. The doctor said this was common and was most likely caused by Chloe sucking her thumb. Sure enough that first evening in the hospital, she started looking for that little thumb. Success came the next day and since then, Chloe's thumb and mouth have been nearly inseparable. In the beginning, her ability to self sooth was wonderful. As the years have progressed however, it has become an object of frustration, with the worry of speech impairment, overbites, braces, and mocking, we have wanted to help her stop sooner rather than later.

After months of starts and restarts, threats of yucky fingernail polish, uttering the phrase"get your thumb out of your mouth" more times than should be humanly possible, and several fits - on both sides, we finally succeeded in thumb-mouth separation! We are soooo proud of her!What could convince a child to quit sucking her thumb cold turkey (which is exactly what she did)? Disneyland and a new bike! Joe has never been to Disneyland and Chloe is in full blown love with anything Disney princess related, so it is something we have talked about doing for some time, and as we talked about it we realized this might just be the incentive she needed to get her to WANT to stop. If I had realized it would work this well, I would have offered this a LONG time ago! So, if all goes according to plan, and the thumb stays out of her mouth, we will be travelling to the happiest place on Earth come September.

Since September is still a bit off, another thing she has talked about wanting is a "big girl" bike. For about a year, her little red trike has made her happy, but as has watched friends make the upgrade, she has wanted too as well. Nothing like a little instant gratification to make this habit breaking worth it! Maybe we are going too far with the rewards, but the money we will save in saving her overbite now will be worth it in the long run - fingers crossed.

Here, in all it's princess glory, is Chloe's new bike! She LOVES it! The day we bought the bike was rainy, as many have been lately, but that didn't stop her from wanting to break the bike in.Here is the first try on the new bike. Chloe was not quite sure how to transition from Trike to Bike.

Day Two - posing once again on the new bike and ready to try again!So much better the second time around!

I am so proud of my cutest little girl! She is such a sweet addition to our family and I am so proud of her for the willpower she has shown in kicking a habit that began in my tummy. Way to go!