I sucked my left thumb until I was eight. I sucked it so often and so hard it stretched a good quarter-inch longer than the right one. I hooked one index finger over the bridge of my nose and twirled my hair into knots with the other one. I couldn’t imagine not sucking it, even when my parents taped it up, or painted it with that terrible-tasting stuff. When I was eight, the dentist told me that if I didn’t stop it, I’d have to get braces for sure. I imagined that scary silver snarl of wires in the mouth and I stopped that night. Tucked the thumb under the pillow and squeezed my eyes tight shut. That was that (though I always thought it was distinctly unfair to have to get braces anyway).
Most people say, and I agree, that the baby looks just like her papa. But genes shine through in all sorts of ways. Just look at her – not quite three months old, and already sucking that thumb like a champ.
O sweet thumb-sucker! I bet she'll be a fairy home finder too.
ReplyDeleteAnd, by the way, I so see you in the way she sees the world--like a poet! Taking every ounce of it in.
awwwww. you are sweet.
ReplyDeletei've told you this before,but before you were born, alittle northeast of town,a ways east of the cannon lies a small woods and glen. your mother and i were on a drive one of many during her large months,reconoitering our new digs. slowly moving on this gravel road i saw something standing in the open meadow of this wood and stopped the car for a brief blink of the eye, i saw it. a unicorn. looking again it was gone, but i saw it. fairy houses? of course.
ReplyDeleteOl'girl, i was a sucker too. yes indeed. the 2 middle fingers on my right hand and while clutching my Grover, tickled my ear with his "hand". Maybe that's why we both hold our thumbs in our hands when we walk? Actually, it's thought that the thumb "represents" our brain/mind so people who are trying to "hold their head together" so to speak, would be ones to hold thier thumbs as they walk (and worry?). Anyway, i was forced to quit my soothing sucking when in 4th grade broke my right arm in half and the big fat cast prevented me from sticking my fingers in my mouth. i'm sure if it went on much longer, braces would have tangled me up as well. But man, i hated quitting.....
ReplyDelete