And so it is over...

After almost 6 years of sucking her two fingers, Ella finally decided that it was time to quit. She had been pestering for months to get her ears pierced, I finally broke down and made her a deal - 25 days of not sucking fingers and you can get them pierced. Initially she burst into tears exclaiming that she would never be able to do it-"you know how much I love my fingers mommy!". However, after a few hours of thinking about it, she decided she would give it a try. She made herself a chart (which I had done a zillion times in the past!) and we stocked up on bandaids (also a previously tried strategy).

I was very skeptical at first. I had come to accept that I, a school psychologist, had failed in breaking my own child's bad habit and we would just have to suffer the orthodotic consequences! Much to my surprise though, Ella was quite successful and took complete ownership of the task at hand.

So tonight was the big celebration. We went out for dinner and then off to Claire's for the big event. She enjoyed every moment of it and was not the least bit phased by the piercing. Although she did tell me afterwords that it really hurt, but she thought "it would be rude to the lady if she cried."




Now let's hope we don't have to use the same incentive for our thumb sucking little boy!