L is gaining increasing control over her hands — so much so that she now can use her fist as a substitute when she’s lost her pacifier.

I originally wrote this several weeks ago, then put it on hold for some reason or another. Now it’s off hold, but I forgot to change “three months.” As of today, she’s just a little more than a week shy of five months.

Translation: we have a budding thumb-sucker.

Now, sucking a thumb is not bad. All parenting books I’ve read say as much. In fact, once L starts teething, our pediatrician informs us, it’ll be better if she sucks on her thumb than on her pacifier.

But for some reason, whenever that cute fist goes partially into her mouth, K and I instinctively pull it back out and re-insert the pacifier.

Why?

After all, a thumb is much more convenient than a pacifier.

• It never falls to the floor.
• It never gets lost.
• It never gets left behind.
• It’s readily available in the dark.

I suppose it’s an unfounded worry that, by letting our little girl start sucking her thumb, she’ll have a hard time later stopping. As she’s only three months old, it’s about like us worrying that she’ll want to go to a school known more for partying than learning.

It’s called “exaggeration.”