Easter 2016, or, Teething Pains

Easter this year was one of highs and lows.  But let's start with the highs!  Even though baby was around last Easter this year felt more like her actual first Easter.  In the morning there was basket investigation:

(Baby got squeezy pouches and some empty eggs because I am a sugar curmudgeon)

(She has been quite happy with the empty eggs.)

(Charlie got a little box of Goldfish, an egg with Reese's pieces and some eggs with jelly beans.)

(Those jelly beans were gone in a matter of minutes.  Kind of embarrassed how quickly I polished off the rest of the bag later...)

Side note: I DID attempt to make those little sock sheep that made the rounds on Facebook.  And...that's all I'll say about that...

ANYway, off we went to church, with everyone looking so fine.  Afterwards, we made some asparagus and headed to Drew's sister's house for the eating and the egging.  We had done some egg hunting that afternoon so Mr. C was very excited to go outside and find eggs.  Pretty sure the only reason I got him to stay inside was because of all the cool toys.

But we had a lovely time munching and mingling, pre-egg hunt.  Mr. C refused to try most of the food aside from the potatoes and rolls (distraction is dinner's enemy), but Baby was a huge fan of everything (except the asparagus of course), especially the ham.  Me too, Baby, me too.

Then we finally went out to find eggs.  Baby was very excited to have more eggs to chew on.

(The only picture we got of the two of them.)

Do you see that metal fence in the back?  There are horses behind there.  Neat, huh?  Well, unfortunately Mr. C tripped on his way to look at the horses and hit his mouth on that bar.  I ran over to see lots of blood and lots of tears and when we took him inside we looked in his mouth to see these broken bits of front teeth and it was just AWFUL.  I almost lost my mind right there.

The bleeding did stop though and we got him some medicine and some TV and he calmed down.  Drew was on the phone for ages to talk to the dentist and texted him a picture of the teeth.  Then the dentist said there was good chance that the teeth were okay, just pushed back in to the gums!  Who knew that was even possible?  I'll be honest, I didn't really believe that was what happened.  I was SURE those teeth were broken right off.  Looking back, I think he would have been in lots more pain if that had happened.

After a while, Mr. C started talking about his teeth being gone and feeling his gums with his tongue.  He also chased after the cat outside and wanted to show it his missing teeth so that was a good sign.  I had happened to bring his jammies (and Kitty too, thank goodness) so he got into those and don't jammies make everything better?

(Luckily all the blood came out.)

He woke up a couple hours after bedtime and was just miserable though, partly from pain I think but also because he was just SO tired.  After another dose of medicine and a blessing, he completely passed out in my arms.  Not sure when I last rocked him to sleep, but it was nice to do again, in spite of the circumstances.  He slept the rest of the night just fine (and has since).

In the morning, right after Baby's check up (two thumbs up), we headed to the dentist.  He'd never been before, but he saw me and Drewbles get a cleaning last fall so I hoped he would do all right.

(You can kind of see how his upper lip was swollen and kind of droopy.)

Well that didn't quite work out.  He sat on my lap for x-rays and sobbed throughout.  He laid on my lap for the (very brief) exam and sobbed throughout--kind of helpful, really, since his mouth was wide open.

But the dentist was right!  We saw on the x-ray those two little top teeth sitting right back up in the gums where they started (also saw his adult teeth above them, whaaaa).  There are a couple little chips, but no nerve damage whatsoever, and the teeth should come back down over the next few months.  So, basically, he's teething again. 

And after the trauma was over, he got to pick a prize!  

He picked one of those grow-in-water dinosaurs and it did indeed grow at least a few centimeters.  We also stopped at the dollar store on the way home where he picked out a red monster truck for surviving the very careful, quick dentist.  And when he put on his jammies a half hour later (as he does at least once a day) I let him wear them all day.  That might have been his favorite reward of all.

Whew.  So, now we are just carefully cleaning the gums and waiting for the teeth to come back down.  An eventful, painful day, but there's no lasting damage--or really much damage at all.  It's basically the best outcome we could have hoped for!  And since we have to periodically check back with the dentist to make sure everything goes according to expectations, maybe we'll get over the sobbing too?  

Back to his old, funny self.

Happy Easter!

Twelve

And just like that, here we are--twelve months old.  Or rather, a year!  A whole year old!  In some ways I feel like she's been a year for ages and in other ways it seems like that should still be a ways off.  Nevertheless, here we are.  And here are her stats (from March 28th) just for the record: 19.56 lbs (20%), 30 inches (72%) and 18.1 inches (72%) for head circumference.

No new teeth this month.  And she's been rather hot and cold about food.  One day she weeps over bananas, another she eats them all and so on.  Some things she will never turn down though and those are cheese, applesauce and prunes.  

But now let's talk naps.  I am going to go on a bit for a minute.  So, some months back I could rock her for a minute, put her down and she would go to sleep.  Then she started sitting up when I put her down, and then she started sitting up and crying.  My solution was to rock her all the way to sleep and then put her down.  It was a little time consuming but it worked for several months and she would still go to bed by herself.  Then, about a month ago she just started waking up every time I put her down and we would repeat the process over and over.  If I left her to cry, she would either reluctantly fall asleep for 20 minutes or so, or just keep crying and then nobody was very happy.

SO.  One day, I had the brilliant thought to just do what I used to do!  So I rocked her until she was very drowsy, put her in bed and left.  The first time, she cried for maybe one minute (maybe) and then just went to sleep and had a great nap!  In about two days she'd stopped crying at all and has been having great naps ever since. 

Can I just say that this is AMAZING.  Every time I put her down and she just goes to sleep happily it is just awesome.  She sleeps better, I don't want to throw things, nobody cries, everything is good. 

Ahhhhhh.

Okay, that's the nap story.  

But the other big story is that she is walking!  Yes.  She's been standing and cruising for a long while and I knew she COULD walk but she just wasn't ready.  One night, February 17th, she went for it and surprised us all.  

She crawls most of the time still, but in the last week she's definitely been trying to walk more often.  It is so fun to see her toddle about.

So, all in all, a pretty terrific month.  It is so fun to have her around, she makes everyone laugh and she is such a good girl.  Always on the move, always climbing onto everything, always following people and always having a good time.

Happy birthday to you, baby girl!

Eleven

First, the answer to the big question: no new teeth this month.  

I wish I could say that that means she's slept through the night 100% of the time, but she still likes to get up in the wee hours now and then.  I don't mind too much though really.  And she does go to bed happily by herself.

Just a little static... 

Naps are getting a bit better.  She still doesn't like going to sleep on her own, but she will usually oblige me by falling asleep with me pretty quickly.  The times I have gotten her to sleep on her own for naps she will wake up after 20 minutes or so, caterwauling.  So at this point I am fine with rocking her to sleep...

(How could I mind this??)

She loves her food.  In fact, she loves it so much she sometimes whines through all of dinner because she is not getting it fast enough.  Favorite foods are still bread, bananas and cheese.  If she sees that I have cheese for her, she will often reject everything until she gets it.  I understand, my girl.  The cheese love is strong in you.

The big event of the month is that she started waving and it is super cute.  Still no clapping, but she has gotten very good at playing peek a book, which is also super cute.  She's also gotten ticklish and giggly and loves to be chased.  She will zoom away on all fours, shrieking.

Other favorite things: books, cars, puzzle pieces and anything she can play peek a book with.  Animals also delight her and she will squeak at them with delight.  This month she and Mr C have been cracking each other up so much and it is fun to watch.  I can't wait until she starts trying to say his name.

I think I can say now that she will say "mama" intentionally these days.  She often says it as she crawls onto my lap at least.  Otherwise she just babbles all day and while she doesn't say words, I think I can hear repeated sounds that she seems to associate with people.  Like in the morning when she hears Mr C or at night when the garage door opens.

What else can I say?  She is just a beautiful baby, with a happy, funny manner.  

And I can't believe she's going to be one in just a few weeks ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Ten

Into the double digits!  And almost to the double digits of teeth, with two more new ones this month--bringing her total to 8 (twice what Mr. C had at this point).

Fortunately these two new teeth did not cause so many sleep disruptions as the upper four.

(Her new funny scrunchy, snorty face.)

So she's continued sleeping through the night, for the most part, but naps have continued to be up and down.  I solved one problem (the answer: prunes....), but she still struggles with getting to sleep.  She refuses to do it on her own, but neither does she like to be held.  Which kind of puts us at an impasse.  She does a rather spectacular full body flop backwards when she's tired.

Of course when she does nap it's usually for maybe an hour, which is not super awesome either.  At this point I am just crossing my fingers that naps will get easier when she switches to one a day.  

(I call this one "Nap Strike")

You know, in like six months.

But despite her sleep orneriness, she is generally very pleasant.  She happily plays and explores and follows everyone around.  She loves to sit with the bucket with cars and slowly get them out one at a time.  Even when she's cranky at bedtime she always cheers up as soon as we start reading books.

She finally had her 9 month appointment, where she slipped a little in height and rather more in weight (Mr. C was almost identical percentage wise at this age): 17.69 lb (22%), 28.75 in (80%) and her head is at 17.5 (59%).  She's just always on the go.

I haven't got her clapping yet but she loves it when other people clap.  She'll stand for a second or two on her own, until she realizes it.  She loves to push walkers around and Mr. C likes to cheer her on.  

Her favorite foods are cheese, bread and her morning banana.  When she doesn't want something she flings her head forward quite spectacularly.  It's not surprising that she usually ends a meal with her food in her hair or on her face because of this.

(Her favorite part of Christmas)

Sometimes I just have to pick her up and squeeze her little baby body because she is so little and cute and scrumptious...

  

...nap strikes and all.