On Freud and Fingers

If you go through all of our pictures, you will notice a pattern: In MOST of them, Darcy has her hands in her mouth and is biting her fingers. I'm not sure why this has developed, but I guess she's never broken out of what Freud called the "oral stage." I have recently tried different techniques to help her fingers (which are now raw and red) to heal. However, with Darcy, you never know what's going to work. One time in an effort to administer some creative correction, I put pepper on her tongue after she was using it to be snide. She looked up at me with excited, wide eyes and exclaimed, "I love that...what is it?" The next day she asked me for some more pepper.

My most recent attempt at healing her fingers was found in the cosmetics aisle at Wal-Mart: exfoliating gloves. When I catch her with her fingers in her mouth, chewing away, I make her put them on.

It seems as though little sister has picked up on her big sister's habits. Gracie, as of late, has found much entertainment in putting her little fingers down her throat and gagging herself. It is not a pretty sight as she loses, what appears to be, half her bottle in the process. Gracie faces a similar punishment when I find her resorting to these bulemic habits...winter gloves. So, here is a picture so I can always remember my girls at this strange stage of development.