Poor Courtney

Okay I feel a little bit guilty, but tough love is what life is all about...right?

On Sunday night Bryan and Ethan went to a Court of Honor and left Courtney and I home. Courtney wasn't too happy about that one so we decided to have a "Girls Night In." I filled the sink with warm water and bath salts, scrubbed her feet, lotioned them all up and painted her toe nails a pretty color (rainbow to be exact). I then had the bright idea to put clear polish on the top of her toe nails because they always seem to wear off really fast, so I did.

We then moved on to her hands and did the same thing except when it came time to put a top coat on I had noticed the bottle of "Stop The Bite" in my cupboard. I bought this awful tasting fingernail polish years ago when Ethan had a bad nail biting problem but didn't use it much because he had a problem with me painting his fingernails. Courtney hasn't been able to stop sucking her thumb and the dentist warned us that if she doesn't stop soon on her own, he will have to put a device in her mouth and that's not what we want to do.

So, being the mom that I am, I put a "special nail polish" on her fingernails. I then sat back to watch. She kept them on her lap for about 30 minutes to let them dry and then she left the room to get something to drink from the kitchen. Suddenly I hear her gag. I asked her what was wrong and she yelled back, "Nothing Mom, I'm okay." But she immediately ran to the fridge and drank a 16 ounce bottle of water trying to get the taste out of her mouth. Yesterday she asked me to take her fingernail polish off and I told her I would if she would tell me why. Not wanting to explain that it tasted bad, she just said, "Never mind."

She has only sucked it once since then and that was last night when she figured out how to peel the polish off. So when she fell asleep I snuck into her room and painted her nails with the stuff again.

We have figured out that she was really a different person when she sucked her thumb because she is a live wire right now. We think she is having withdrawals. Sunday night she didn't sleep very well because she uses her thumb to fall asleep but she is doing better now....she just talks A LOT MORE than she did before...and that's saying something!