Our morning ritual is for me to get her out of her crib and then put her in my bed with a sippy cup full of milk. She reclines while she drinks it; and twirls her hair.
I haven't wanted to draw attention to it - negative or positive; so I've never mentioned it to her before. But a few weeks ago I decided to finally ask her about it because I was curious to see if she was aware that she did it. While she was drinking her morning milk, I just asked her, "are you pulling your hair?" She pulled her cup out of her mouth and flashed a really big smile, as if she was excited to talk about it. She said, "yes, I like that!" I said, "you like pulling your hair?" She nodded yes again. Then she said excitedly, "you wanna touch it Mommy?" It was so cute. It was like she was offering to share this REALLY cool thing with me. So I said, "ok!" and I gently pulled on a piece of her hair. I could tell that it really pleased her that I was interested to try this thing she loved so much. Then she corrected me, "no mommy, like this." And she twirled it and then lightly yanked it. I said, "ooooh, ok!"
I haven't thought about it again until yesterday morning. I was lying in bed with her while she was drinking her milk and twirling her hair; and I just asked her if she would hold my hand. I wanted to see if she would give up the twirling to hold my hand. (She loves to hold hands.) She nodded "yes" and then grabbed my hand. We laid there for a few short seconds like that; but then she took the cup out of her mouth and said to me very matter-of-factly, "Mommy, I can't hold your hand while I'm pulling my hair, ok?" I just laughed and said, "ok we can hold hands later."
The conclusion from my "experiments" is that she is very aware of her habit; but clearly isn't at all ashamed of it. That makes me happy. As long as it doesn't turn into pulling her hair out, I'm going to assume it's a harmless self-soothing habit that she'll grow out of. I think it's a cute little quirk.
Age 13 months:
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