Let It Go!

During our Texas trip Doug and Koen went to see "Frozen" (Koen's first theater experience).  Koen loved the movie (and Doug was impressed too).  He's been singing the song, "Let it Go," at the top of his lungs from it ever since.  The other night Koen and I walked down to the local RedBox to pickup a movie for Doug and I.  He happened to spot an ad on the machine that "Frozen" would be available March 18th.  He was soooo excited.  I told him that he could use his own money to rent it some time after it came out and I'd watch it with him.  Well, when Koen and Doug went back to the RedBox the following night to return the movie we'd rented, Koen went into the whole excitement thing again and Doug (totally one-upping me) said that he'd be happy to rent the movie for Koen if he set a goal and accomplished it by then.  I agreed this was a splendid idea and had just the perfect thing for a goal...how about stopping sucking your thumb?  Amazingly, there was no pushback.  We decided that we would make a countdown and when Koen had gone 6 days without sucking his thumb (landing right about the time the movie comes out) we could rent it.  Koen loves a goal and a plan, so he was very into it.  Here's the sign I concocted to chart the progress.  As you can see the letters are all frozen in ice cubes to start. 

Then with each day he succeeds with not sucking his thumb (at all) the letters unthaw one by one.  

We make a big deal of it when we put the yellow letter on saying things like, "oooh, it's getting warmer in here" or "the sun is starting to melt away the ice cubes because you aren't sucking your thumb!"  Koen LOVES it.  This morning he now has 3 letters thawed.  I heard him say while he was putting on the "O", "it's getting warmer over here now, Mommy."  Bless his heart.  He and his teddy (that's the lovey he's had since he was a baby who has really made it tough to break this habit) joke with each other about how after 6 days they can go back to having Koen sucking his thumb.  He knows that's not the point, but I just hope this gets us one step closer to breaking this old habit.  It was great when he was a baby and toddler, no big deal, but Koen, it's time to..."LET IT GO!"