Thumb-suckin' Pacifier Thief

So I was always under the impression that babies come hard-wired from the get go to be either pacifier suckers or thumb suckers, and if they didn't go for either right away, then they just didn't need it. Josie showed disdain for pacifiers from day 1, and I was pleasantly surprised. Great! No unpleasant weaning from a paci, or nuky, or bing or whatever other cutsey terms evolve around pacifiers. Now, she would occasionally suck on a finger or hand or arm or couch, but just never seemed to be overly gung-ho for her thumb. Or pacifier. We just thought she wasn't going to be a "sucker."

Until recently.

Apparently, she is now aware enough to notice that- "Hey! That kid has something that I don't. And I think I want it!" Her first victims were the Watson twins. They naively thought that they could toodle around the couch in front of her with their pacifiers safely in their mouths. But they were wrong. She popped the nuks from their mouths and popped them right in hers. I don't think they knew quite what to think of this ballsy kid taking advantage of them this way- and a girl, nonetheless! They were used to it from each other - but not someone else. After this first offense, we began to get reports from daycare that the thief was striking there, too. All of a sudden, Josie would have a nuk in her mouth, and Alexa or Isiah wouldn't. Then just last Sunday, another encounter with the Watson boys lead to more thievery. I think they'll probably just avoid her in the future. :)

Not long after the pacifier crime spree began, the thumb sucking started. We'd find her in her crib in the morning, contentedly pretending to still be asleep while plugging away at her little thumb. I have to admit- it's awful darn cute. Then she started to find it while we'd be rocking her before bed, and now promptly pops it in her mouth when we lay her down at night.

I guess thinking back- she did always find the tags on her "taggie" blanket and shove the silky pieces of fabric in her mouth when she was tired, so perhaps we simply deprived her the opportunity to become attached to a nuk, or she probably would have. If it's got to be a paci or a thumb, I'm happy she's chosen the thumb. Come to think of it, I was a passionate thumb sucker and look at how good I turned out. Right?!