Suckin' Thumb

I don't know if you remember this picture, but this is Miller's comfort.  Miller loves his Kiggy (and Ion which is usually dangling in the other hand).  For some reason, we have no idea why or how it started, Miller loves to smell his Kiggy's tail (while sucking his thumb).  If you are really special, he will let you smell Kiggy's tail.  If anything is hurt, Miller is upset or Miller is tired Kiggy comes to the rescue and the thumb goes in the mouth....

To say the past few days have been rough for Miller is definitely an understatement.  Miller's asthma has been acting up and he has been dealing with croup.  He has had very long, sleepless nights.  His one comfort through all of this have been his Kiggy and his thumb.  Besides this sickness episode, things have been a little crazy around here.  I kept the kids out of preschool their last week and a half because the flu was spreading like wildfire and I figured dragging kids around with me while doing my last minute Christmas stuff was much better than the flu going around our house.  Anyone who has had three little ones can imagine how that might cause a little chaos.  Because of that, a few things have gone unnoticed around the Lee House, laundry, making beds, fixing hair (no hairbows or rubber bands when we are just at home) and minor hygiene like clipping fingernails.  I do not have to worry about Ella's fingernails because she has picked up the terrible habit of biting her fingernails.  And Sara Wells I stay on top of, usually, because she claws like crazy.  In the midst of everything, I have not thought about Miller's fingernails in a few days.  You know it is bad when Daddy decides it is time to cut his fingernails.  Especially since I don't think that Murray has ever cut any of the kids fingernails.

Cleaning up from lunch today I heard Miller start crying from the bathroom calling for me.  His crying the past few days has become normal so I did not think that much about it.  He came into the kitchen, with Murray following him, showing me his thumb saying, "I have blood."  Being the good dad, realizing I needed a little help, Murray decided to cut Miller's fingernails.  On the last nail, somehow Murray clipped a little bit of his skin.  I know that sounds bad, but that is not the worst part.  The worst part is it was his "suckin' thumb."  The reason Miller was crying was not because it hurt, rather because he could not suck his thumb!  After he was properly bandaged up Murray tried to console Miller, telling him it would be ok....

Murray: "It's ok buddy, you can suck your other thumb."
Miller:  As sweet and sincere as you can imagine a little boy saying, "I can't suck that thumb Daddy, it's not a suckin' thumb."

I mean, Oh my goodness!  What a sweet boy we have.  All Miller wanted to do today was suck his thumb, his 'sucking thumb,' and poor boy could not even do that.