Birthdays, Thumb Sucking and Skiing: A Bryce Family Update

Happy Birthday to You!
Hard to believe that three years ago today, we had our family increase from three to four. DC has been looking forward to today for the last six months or so, continually asking when her “Happy Birthday” was going to come. This morning, she was head over heels with excitement that it was here at last.

So what is DC up to these days? Denisa and I are currently trying to get her weaned from sucking her thumb. So far, it’s been successful. How do we do it? The same way we did it with TRC. We’d tried everything with TRC–the fingernail paint, bribes, admonitions. You name it. Then one day I decided to try giving him a “special glove”–a sock that we put over the offending hand and then safety pinned on to his pajamas so he couldn’t take it off. It stopped him cold turkey (although he now claims he still sucked his fingers–he just did it through the glove. Possible, but it still got him out of the habit.) We’re now doing the same thing to DC, although she needs two special gloves, since she’s been using both thumbs interchangeably. She looks a little funny, walking around on her way to bed with two socks on her hands, but hey–whatever we can do to help her have fewer teeth problems later, right? There’s a carrot at the end of the stick, too: now that DC’s stopped sucking her thumbs, Denisa has gone to get her nail polish at the store. Purple nail polish and a happy birthday, both on the same day? The girl’s going to explode with excitement.
She’s a very outgoing three year old. She loves to jump and play with her brother, and above all, she insists on equality. If TRC gets a piano lesson, then so does she. If TRC can read books, so can she. If TRC gets to play on my iPad, she does too. She loves watching movies, although more for the treats involved than for the movies themselves. (Her list of scary movies includes Follow that Bird, Elmo in Grouchland, Carebears, Beauty and the Beast, Princess and the Frog–pretty much any movie.) She usually comes out of her room around 6:30 each morning when I’m writing, and I send her off to Denisa to sleep some more. She puts anything and everything down for a nap (swaddling channel changers is a first for me), eats anything and everything sweet, and is overjoyed that she’s been able to watch Sesame Street each day now.
And did I mention that Denisa has already started taking her skiing? Tuesday she went down the bunny hill five times. TRC, meanwhile, has already been down his first blue slope. We were going to go skiing this afternoon as a family, but it’s in the single digits with the wind chill right now, so we decided to pass. (We’re dedicated winter enthusiasts . . . but we’re not that dedicated.)
In any case, we’re very happy to have DC with us. This evening’s agenda is some sort of dinner (her choice), flower cupcakes, probably a movie (with popcorn), and presents. She’s getting a pink marble run, a pink doctor set (she loves to chase TRC around with anything remotely pointy, screaming “Flu Shot! Flu Shot!” (well, more like “Fu Shot!”) over and over. I figure the doctor set–with a pretend syringe–should go over very well) and a sippy cup for her dollies.
Girl toys–a new field of research for this author/librarian. When do Barbies start?
Happy Birthday, DC!

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