First Tooth!

You can sort of see here, but he's a droolly, snotty mess these days.  Part of that - I think - is a summer cold that we've gotten (which is fairly mild as colds go, so it could just be allergies?), but part of it is teething.  He is of that age.

He's been a cranky beast.  He screamed at me all of Monday afternoon and Monday night he screamed most of the night.  Finally at midnight (he'd been up off and on since 9, so really since I'd put him down at 7) I decided I wasn't helping, he was just crying on my shoulder, so I calmed him down and left him to try to sleep.  He woke up.  He cried.  He cried for 25 minutes off and on.  Then he fell asleep.  He woke up again two hours later, cried for five minutes, then slept.

It is not easy for me to leave him to cry.  And I listened carefully and watched him on the monitor.  If he just got hysterical I was going to go in there.  If he started beating the rails (which he's done before) I was going to go in there.  If he woke up his brother ... well I'd make a judgement call.

But it worked out.  Tuesday night he woke up at 10 and cried less then ten minutes and went back to bed.  He woke up again at 4 and cried less then 10 minutes (my threshhold before I go check) and went back to bed.  Last night he didn't wake up crying at all.  He slept from 8 - 6.

But Monday night, as I cringed and stressed listening to him cry, I nudged Lewis and made him listen to it too.  He said, That sounds like Denver.  I bet his tooth is here.  I argued with him.  I said, I've been saying that for months, and he's still has no teeth!  It's not his teeth!  I don't know what's wrong.

Of course the Lord loves making me wrong and makes me eat crow.  Tuesday afternoon (May 21), with more fussing and crying, I put my finger in his mouth and low and behold, a tooth finally cut.

You can sort of see it here, it's the front right one.  There are several that look about to rupture.  The top two are not far behind these bottom ones.  They are sooo swollen.  I'd imagine he'll have six teeth by his first birthday so that's six teeth in three months.

He's doing great with cheerios.  We tried avacado the other day.  He choked a bit but he did seem to like it.  The mushy consistency (that doesn't dissolve) takes more practice in my mind.  And it's hard to find the balance between small enough so we don't choke, and big enough to pick up.

I also gave him peanut butter on toast.  Like, three teeny tiny pieces.  I have friends that won't give their kids peanut butter until they are 2.  I don't know where they get the information.  Maybe their doctors?  I looked it up online, just to make sure, and AAP says no restriction on nuts (like no honey for a year because of botulism).  Only watch out because they are choking hazards.

Dinner time is getting harder because I essentially have to make three meals.  And I have to watch the food shoveler here like a hawk.  Seriously he just put legos in his mouthed and tried to eat them.  I did not have these issues with G.  Chalupa takes big huge handfulls and shoves them into his mouth.  G never, not once in his whole life, did that.  Chalupa is more traditional in this way, and it's nice to see.  But I think G is normal too.  There are many kids that are picky and more particular about what they put in their mouths.

I hate thinking Chalupa is better at something than G.  I get mad at myself.  I get defensive with myself about G.  But that's just the truth here.  Chalupa is a better eater, at 9mos old, than G is at three.  Sigh.  Just the way it goes.