Tooth or Consequences
Ian’s not a happy camper at the moment. He’s got one heck of a head/chest cold and on top of that has a tooth coming in that is really taking its time, pushing through those gums one painful micron at a time. Those things appear to be related from casual observation… new tooth means new horrible cold and fever. He’s sad, he’s whiny, he’s become a fussy eater temporarily, but he continues to learn and grow.
Some additional recent observations:
• This is an old one, actually, but I wanted to note it. Probably since he was only a couple months old, Ian has consistently helped us dress him. He bends at the elbow, or straightens out his leg, if it helps. You can pretty much lift his hand toward a sleeve and he’ll push his hand right through until it is out of the cuff. I’m not sure how common that is, but I realized the other day how painful it would be to dress him if he didn’t do that.
• Last night I replaced a few of the pictures around the house. In the bathroom we have some shots of him in the tub, and I had put a new one up with Ian playing with a ball. Melissa brought Ian into the bathroom for something unrelated, and he immediately diverted her attention to the new images by pointing excitedly and saying “ball!”
• This morning I made a stack of soft blocks into a column. He noted the dog on the side of one of the cubes for the first time and smiled at it. Before he could examine it as much as he wished, he pushed the column over, but kept his eye on that top block… he was able to pick it out from the other blocks immediately.
• Also this morning, I sat in the living room with Ian while he played with some loud rattles. “Shhh,” I said “You’ll wake mama up.” His head swiveled to look up the steps at our bedroom, and he called aloud “Mama!” Then he want to the gate and started crying for her. This may not be advanced or anything, but it just seemed like he understood where Mama goes to sleep.
Sorry no new pics at the moment… I might see about getting a shot of his teeth up here if I get a sec. EDIT -> Here’s some pics!
Really I was just trying to take some good shots to see what’s going in on my kid’s mouth. He really won’t let you check it out usually, he’s too busy to let you take a peek. We are trying to teach him the good ol’ doctor’s “say ahhhh” trick, but he doesn’t have that down yet. See this image larger.
So instead, we use Mama’s patented TICKLETICKLETICKLETICKLE method. See this image larger.
The cutest of the bunch, in my opinion, but also the most telling… see detail shot below! See this image larger.
I’ve highlighted and labeled the area where you can see the white-ish nub of a tooth poking up. The whiter that gets without actually being out, the more he’s hurting. The good news is, as soon as it pokes out, most of the pain seems to go with it.
