Feeling a Wee Bit Guilty

Recognize a commonality to these photos?






And it all started here...
I've always loved that Tegan sucks her fingers. It's made her even more precious to me than she already is. I love that she has used it to self soothe, help her fall asleep, calm down, and turn to when boredom gets the best of her, but I don't like how she simultaneously rips her hair out while she sucks them. I guess rip is a strong word to use, there was a time when she was younger that she was actually ripping her hair out, hence the short hairdo for the first 2 1/2 years of her life, but now it's more of a slow twist over and over. She's breaking it all off and thinning like an old man on one side of her head.
I didn't want to take away her one true love until much further down the road, but the vain part of me doesn't want my daughter having a big bald spot on her head. I tried to think of all these different ways I could solve the problem like a hat with fake hair for her to twist, or a wig, but I knew I just needed to get to the root of the problem--her fingers. And I did what any mean mom would do and painted her nails with the nastiest tasting stuff ever. Watching Tegan's face after her first post-nasty polish application was sad. She was surprised and confused. I explained to her the reason which brings me to another thing I adore about Tegan, she just rolls with the punches. She agreed that it was time to become a big girl and hasn't complained once about her nasty tasting fingers. She's happily let me reapply it. But I feel guilty taking away her best friend and a little saddened that I no longer get to see her happily sucking her fingers, and a little frustrated that it now takes her twice as long to go to sleep at night, but a little happy that she no longer twists at her hair, and finally a little unprepared to see my little girl becoming my big girl.