We said, "sure" and she went in her room, closed her door, and spent a couple hours in there "organizing." I didn't really think much about it and went on doing whatever I was doing around the house that day. A couple days later, I realized that when we tucked her in that night she didn't have her beloved teddy. So, I asked her where he was. She said, "I put him and Ellie (her beloved elephant) in the treasure chest.
Now, let me back up a bit. Maclaine has been a thumb sucker since she was a baby and when she got older she didn't do it quite so much but when she did, it was when she was holding Teddy or Ellie. So, when she was in Kindergarten and 1st grade we kept telling her that she really needed to quit sucking her thumb, that it was going to ruin her teeth. Whenever she would come out with Teddy and Ellie we would have to tell her to put them back to bed because they were aiding in her thumb sucking.
Here she is with Teddy...
Her, Ellie & her thumb...
and another....
So, on her own, she realized that she needed to put them away...in the treasure chest so that she wouldn't be tempted to suck her thumb.
Over the summer, I was cleaning behind the little couch in our den area and the treasure chest was back there so I opened it to see exactly what she had put in there.
This is what I found.
I found this note that she had written to her "friends".
"I will miss you gise."
Oh, how my heart melted! My poor baby (1st grader, at the time) made the decision on her own to quit sucking her thumb. All I wanted to do at that moment was take her Teddy and Ellie back to her bed and tuck her in with them and tell her it was OK if she still wanted to suck her thumb. I missed my baby! When she was a thumb sucker at 5 or 6 it drove me crazy and now all I wanted was for her to start doing it again. Bring back those years.
***Tears streaming down my face***
My girl is growing up! Even though she has become such a fun young lady I'm really feeling melancholy that the years are flying by!
