I've Got Ten of These Things?

The Doodlebug has found his hands. And they frequently make their way to his mouth, where he sucks vigorously and surprisingly loudly. However, what he does is shove his entire fist into his mouth, which of course doesn't fit. So he's mid-suck and out the fist falls, with plenty of drool everywhere. He's really happy leaning against someone's shoulder because then he can prop his fist between the shoulder and his mouth for some really quality sucking. What I'm trying to get him to understand is that if he just uncurled that little fist, he has perfect mouth-sized fingers. Ten little bite-sized digits. (I'm all for self-soothing if it means my pinky gets to unprune. If he wants to suck his thumb or finger, good for him. As they say in my mom's group, no one goes to college sucking his thumb. And if you happen to be the exception to this, I don't want to hear about it.) Every now and then, the finger will get close, but he'll just bypass it for the side of his hand. I even tried to unfurl his hand for him to show him how it's done but to no avail. Our child is just, well, special.