April 11 - Jonathan is becoming a Thumb Sucker and Can Pull out his Pacifier by Himself

In the last week, Jonathan stayed at home because he was sick and did not go to the day care center. Mommy and daddy were also sick at home for 3 days, so we had some nice family time. My husband anted me to write that he helped me out a lot this week and took care of Jonathan when I was not feeling so well. I am happy to comply with his wish because he was a great help, even though all 3 of us were sick at the beginning of the week. Now, as the week comes to a close both my boys are well again and only mommy is still sick... makes you wonder, and they say mother's day is always hard work for mom to clean up…maybe its like this also with a family sick week…

But I did not want to write about the illness. In the time we were all home, I started seeing that Jonathan was taking a liking to his thumb. He no longer just sucks his hand but he is showing a developing preference for his thumb. As a mom, this is very concerning because one must think now already how in about 4 years one will need to rid the boy of this habit. But on the other hand I have no idea how to stop this tendency. Jonathan has never been consistent with the pacifier. He likes it and it calms him down especially when he is tired - but it's not 100% full proof and not always works. He is however very consistent with his hands, he loves to sick them! In fact human flesh in general, especially mommy's hand, will do as well.

Jonathan has also recently learned to pull out the pacifier from his mouth - what he has not yet learned is to put is back. So you get a funny demonstration of sucking motions with the mouth parallel to his efforts to return the pacifier to his mouth, but he always turns it - so it's up side down and does not fit in his mouth. And so he keeps trying to shove it back into place without success. After a while he gets fed up and calls for mommy to fix the pacifier properly back in his mouth...