Nathan & Fiona, Kaisa & Everett – Family Blog

After nearly 3 years, Nathan and I have finally decided it’s time to break Kaisa of her thumb-sucking habit.  We are getting to the point where here speech, teeth, and self-esteem are starting to be affected.

We have been telling Kaisa for a while that if she stops sucking her thumb, she can go to Disneyland.  Now that we’ve got the tickets and hotel booked, we are reaching crunch time!  So…we called in the help of a little thing called the ThumbGuard.  I ordered it from a dental supply website (it wasn’t cheap!) and it arrived on Monday.  She was pretty excited about the guard at first, and liked picking out the color of wristband to wear.  I called it her “special bracelet.”

I told Kaisa that if she didn’t suck her other thumb, she would only have to wear one bracelet.  However, it only took about 4 hours for her to stick the other one in her mouth and suck away.  So, I put the other one on.  At nap time, it took her an hour to fall asleep.  She wasn’t upset, just couldn’t seem to get herself calmed down without the thumb.

On day 2, Kaisa really started to hate the ThumbGuards.  At nap time, she cried and begged me to “take these off!”  I didn’t, but lay down with her to help her fall asleep.  I’m hoping this doesn’t last very long, because that’s the time when I work!  Bed time has been an ordeal as well.  It takes her SO LONG to fall asleep without the thumb.  Hopefully, she’ll get the hang of it!

For the most part, I am really happy with the ThumbGuard device.  I didn’t want to put it on too tight the first time, but unfortunately I didn’t get it tight enough and she figured out how to wiggle her thumb out.  I had to put them on tighter the next day, and they seem to be irritating her wrists a little bit.  Luckily, they are very flexible and don’t seem to interfere much with her day-to-day activities.  She has had no problems going potty or picking things up.  She does need help opening things occasionally.  The best part is that she literally can NOT suck her thumbs with the guards on.  It is impossible for her to form a seal and create suction around the tubes.  The manual says most children are able to quit after 3 to 4 weeks of wearing the guards.  This gives us just enough time to kick her of the habit by Disneyland!

Good luck Kaisa!  We are so proud of you!

On Monday I got up early and scored some AWESOME deals at RiteAid.  This is a local drugstore and I think it’s part of the CVS group of pharmacies, so if you have those in your area, don’t skip over them for great deals!  I am an especially big fan of the “Single Check Rebate” program.  Your rebates accumulate for one month and they mail you a check for the grand total.  I have received anywhere from $15 to $45 back every month since I started this program.  The best part is, your coupons are not counted in the total spent for rebates, so you can save even more!

For everything in this picture:

• Total cost of items before coupons-$171.90
• Total out-of-pocket cost after coupons & promotions-$44.31
• Total spent after rebates-I made $3.68 to shop at their store and take their stuff

4 Planters nuts, 6 bags of easter candy, 1 bottle baby lotion, 1 package cotton swabs, 2 boxes Band-Aids, 1 box KY Yours & Mine, 1 tube Neosporin, 1 tube Benadryl, 1 bottle Visine drops, 2 boxes OB tampons

Have I mentioned lately how much fun we have in Joy School?

Last week, our lesson was about trying new things.  I read the story “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss to the girls and then we tried it out!  I even let them try cracking an egg into the bowl.  Messy, but fun!  Here they are enjoying their snack.  They loved it and all of them asked for more!

Who would have thought that you could get great grocery deals at Kmart and Target?  I got everything in the picture for about $2.50.  Amazing!

A friend of mine posted a link to this ADORABLE craft for little boys:

Car Cozie by My Little Gems

My friend Rachelle and I got together one Saturday morning and tried it out.  They turned out way cute!  What do you think?  SO easy…and it only cost us 8 bucks for the supplies to make 2!  This is a great little craft to do if you find your little boy’s toy cars strewn about the room or cluttering your purse.  There are 6 little pockets to hold the cars and a road to drive them on.  It’s great for church and car rides too!

Everett loves his car cozie!