Sweet thumb sucker….

When Brayden was a brand new baby I gave in and gave him a paci to soothe him.  I had a love/hate relationship with that paci and spent my nights putting it back in Brayden's mouth after it popped out repeatedly and he cried for it.  Finally after about six months of sleep deprivation we decided to take the paci away.  I hoped and prayed he would find a finger to suck and low and behold he did!  Brayden started sucking his thumb pretty soon after we took the paci away and it automatically helped soothe him when he was upset or tired and helped him to get a better night's sleep as well.  Not to mention that I thought it was pretty adorable the way he sucked and hooked his pointer finger.  

Well almost six months ago I took Brayden to the dentist for the first time and the dentist asked me if he sucked his thumb all day and all night because that is what his teeth look like…I told her that he mainly just sucks when he is sleeping, tired, or upset.  Seriously, if he was upset and crying all we would have to do is say "find your thumb" he would pop it in his mouth, lay his head on our shoulder and be fine.  Anyway, the dentist proceeded to tell me that we needed to try and get Brayden to stop sucking before the age of three otherwise he would need a palette expander, and more expensive painful dental work to get his teeth and mouth straightened out.  Ouch!

I don't do very well with change and I was dreading the thought of making our poor sweet boy stop sucking his thumb that very obviously soothed and comforted him.  Brian and I agreed that we would give Brayden a little bit of time to adjust to starting school and we would start in October mentioning that he should stop sucking.  Well our Brayden makes every thing easier than we could have ever thought, I seriously don't give him enough credit.  I expected tears and a long drawn out and painful process.  We casually mentioned to Brayden a  couple of times in passing that he should take his thumb out and that he should stop sucking his thumb. We told him that he had an owie on his thumb (a callus) from sucking and that he should stop.  Then Brayden spent the night at his GaGa and PaPa's house and GaGa also mentioned to him playfully that he should take his thumb out of his mouth….well that's all it took!  Brayden came home and we never saw him suck his thumb again.  He would even say "I don't suck my thumb" and "I don't want to get an owie".   For a couple of weeks we noticed that he would kind of chew on his hand and gnaw on his knuckles like he wanted to suck but wouldn't but that soon went away as well. 

 I'll admit there are times  now when he is screaming crying or throwing a fit that I wish I could just tell him to find his thumb and lay his little head on my shoulder :( but our buddy is getting older and amazingly his teeth are already starting to straighten out on their own!!!:)  After going back to look for thumb sucking pictures I did realize that recently he had started sucking more and more as he was getting older and it was probably good that we stopped the habit when we did.  

So…. here is a little tribute to our sweet Brayden and his journey of thumb sucking:

I believe this is the first picture I have of Brayden sucking his thumb 

These last ones were all taken in September, I think I knew the thumb sucking was coming to an end and wanted to capture it just a few more times!

Our sweetest boy is growing up, bittersweet…..

September/October 2013

I have been so busy and a horrible blogger the past couple of months so I am just playing catch up.... Here is a photo blog of September and October, enjoy :)

Lots of Grandparent love the past couple months!!!
We had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa!  Sterling loved all of the extra attention!

*GaGa came to babysit and these two had a blast going for a ride

*Grandpa came for a visit too!

*One last swim of the summer at GaGa and PaPas house!

*We have had a busy couple months and gone to lots of birthday parties celebrating sweet friends.  One of our favorites was sweet Lauren's first birthday at Fiesta Farms!  Grandma and Grandpa were in town and stayed home with S so Brian and I got to take Brayden and have some fun.  It was so much fun petting with all of the adorable animals!!!

Kisses for the bunny
I think I enjoyed the bunnies even more than Brayden, they were just so soft and snuggly!

And kisses for a goat

Sweet baby goats!!

Seriously a horse ride?!  Brayden was all about it!

A hay ride and Brayden got to sit right next to this sweet pup

And even a ride on a donkey…Look close, I love the look on Brayden's face here!

I found Bevo!!!!

And some sibling love….

Love the facial expressions here too…..
And yes, my child is naked on the horse...

Bathtime buddies! Definitely takes both Brian and I to tackle this one each night!

Just started letting Sterling ride with Brayden in the cart and it is so much fun, not to mention I have much more room in my cart now that Sterling's carrier is not taking up all of the space!

Sterling at 8 months

Sister was not very cooperative taking her eight month picture!  She nearly dove off the bench and chair a handful of times and is just way to active to sit still and get her picture taken (I obviously haven't trained her yet!:)) Anyway, here is what our baby girl is up to at eight months:

*Sterling is everywhere!  She spends her days crawling from one toy to the next, stopping to put something in her mouth and move on.  

We finally had to put the gate at the bottom of the stairs because we found her half way up two times, eeeek!  

*Sterling loves pulling up on anything but this little table seems to be her favorite.  She bangs on all the buttons and kind of bounces up and down to the music.

*She is becoming more curious and we find her in new places all around the house each day!

*Sterling cut her second tooth, right next to the first one on the bottom

*Girl loves her solids!  She is eating so well and especially loves cheerios and anything she can pick up and put in her mouth herself.  She is also a big fan of yogurt.  She is still getting a bottle five times a day but is getting a  little less in her afternoon bottles because I think she is so full from lunch.  She gets solids twice a day still at lunch and again at dinner.

*Daylight savings messed her schedule up for about a week, she had her first ear infection this month, and then she had two canker sores in her mouth so she had some sleep issues this month but we are finally back on track!  She goes down between 7:30-8:00 pm and has been waking up between 6-7:00 in the morning for her first bottle but goes back down after that and usually sleeps till about 8:30.  Of course as always I can't resist sleeping baby pictures…

Poor girl was in the back seat crying and I couldn't figure out why!  She finally gave in and just fell asleep!

*Sterling love, loves dogs and loves playing with Mia.  Mia plays with her a little and follows Sterling around hoping she has some food left on her shirt or that she might spit up!

*Sterling is also IN LOVE with Brayden.  She follows him around, plays with his toys, tries to crawl on him and he pretty much wants nothing to do with her!  "no ster-wing!" Luckily at this point she doesn't know any better and just goes on playing.  

*It has gotten a little louder in our house now that Sterling has started babbling!  Nothing very clear yet except of course dada!!!

*She is still such a happy little thing and a very easy baby most of the time, so thankful for this precious baby :)