kenny discovers his hand, but his thumb still eludes him

As Kenny's control over his limbs improves, he's a bit less spastic and more deliberate in what he does. With this in mind, he's begun to discover his hand, and how it tastes fantastic. In lieu of a pacifier, Kenny often tries to suck on a knuckle, or perhaps the whole fist at once. When he takes the next step forward and begins to separate his thumb from his fist by uncurling it, we're in for some serious thumb sucking.

I'm not a fan of Kenny being a thumb sucker, as I was one for many YEARS. Yes, dear readers, I admit that not only was I an unabashed thumb sucker, but future orthodonture be damned, I kept doing it well past the point of social acceptance. Being a parent who wants his child to learn from his past mistakes, I can't fathom letting Kenny get a taste for that forbidden digit. Besides, when he's trying to impress the high school ladies while flashing a mouth full of metal (or sheer plastic, or fiber optic cable, or whatever they're using by then), he'll wish I had intervened. In fact, I'm sure he'll wander the halls of his school telling anyone that will listen that, "My dad's a freakin' genius for coming between me and my thumb when I was but a wee lad of three months old." And he'll say it exactly like that, mark my words.

In the meantime, I dive bomb the boy with his pasi when I see him working on the hand. Until I can come up with a better long term plan, it'll have to do.