Funny Thursday

Today my brother and his girlfriend came for lunch. We had a great couple of hours catching up and chatting about all things. Of course, the stories eventually came around to little Miss Charlotte and my brother said I should definitely share this one with you all. 

As I've mentioned in a previous post, Harrison sucks on his two fingers for comfort. When he's tired, in they go. When he's settling down for a nap he can be crying a little and he gets those two fingers in his mouth and all is silent. When he's eating, between mouthfuls, the fingers are in there. I think part of it is also due to teething. I think the pressure that the two fingers put on his gums help him.

When he was younger than his six months, Harrison didn't like the car seat. He'd cry most of the time unless the car was moving or he had a pacifier. He still doesn't really like the car, but he's a lot better. He only cries now if he's very tired or hungry. He doesn't use the pacifier anymore so, instead he uses his fingers. Most of the time he doesn't cry because he can just put his fingers in whenever he wants. He has a built in pacifier. Sometimes though, if he's very tired, he needs a little encouragement. Unless Andrew is in the car, that encouragement comes down to me who is driving or Charlotte who is in her own car seat on the other side of the car. So, we turn to words. "Find your fingers Harrison" or "Suck your fingers Harrison" are two phrases we use. Believe it or not, it works. Just today on my way to pick up Charlotte, Harrison was crying. As I can't do anything while driving I said "Find your fingers Harrison" and he did.


Charlotte doesn't like to hear Harrison cry. Most children don't like to hear other children cry. Even babies don't like it when other babies cry. They get upset too. When he was younger, she just put her hands over her ears. While she sometimes does that too, she has found another way to do so. She copies her Mom. Problem is, she has difficulty with the letter 's'. In most instances, she says the words correctly. Sugar, Sally, Sammy the Sea Lion, no problem. The word Suck, however? Huge problem. 


We were in the bathroom cleaning her teeth the other night and we were discussing her thumb sucking situation. We're working on curbing that habit and trying, for now, to limit it to the night time or unless she's super tired. We were chatting about it and she declared "The dentist said I can F@@k my thumb". Well, to say I was knocked over is an understatement. Of course, before I ran for the soap, I asked her what she said. She repeated it but I realized that it was her attempt at suck. So, I repeated the word for her. "It's ssssss, suck Charlotte". She repeated it perfectly. But, she has to really concentrate. I mentioned it to my friend when she was over for supper one night. She's a Speech Therapist. She said it's perfectly normal. The "F" and the "S" are formed in the same way. 


Normal? Maybe. Embarrassing if we're in the middle of a shop and she tells Harrison to suck his fingers using the letter "f" instead? You betcha! Hopefully no one will notice. Yeah, right. 


So, when we're in the car and Harrison starts to cry, Charlotte usually is the one who responds first. She tells him to suck his fingers in her own way and I then help her with her pronounciation. In the meantime, I now tell Harrison to find his fingers in hopes she'll start saying that too. If not, it'll probably make for an embarrassing moment for Mommy (probably not the first).