Oh, baby my baby

Poor Jellybean is teething.

I know, she's been teething for what seems like ages. AGES.

But she's got 4 teeth (eye teeth? canines? gah, I'd be a terrible dentist) breaking through all at once. And she's miserable.

Yesterday, she picked at the gums over one tooth until she was bleeding. My beautiful little baby was wandering around the house with bloody drool, like a pre-school version of cujo. Her pale, pale skin ruddy with blood. Even the wispy blonde tendrils got a bit pink.

She's also got a cold. Of course.

She's in bed right now. She went down well. But ever 4 or 5 minutes she cries. This woeful, piteous lament of mama, mama, mama.

She's had tylenol, and an icy (frozen teether). There's not much more I can do....

It breaks my heart to hear my baby cry.

My imaginary friend

When I was little, I had an imaginary friend named "Mousie." She was, you'll be surprised to hear, a mouse. And I would pretend to be a mouse, too, and bite my cousins when they did annoying things like pile all of the cushions from the patio furniture on top of me and then sit on it. You know, since my mouth was the only thing not pinned down. But I digress about the biting...

The point is, I had an imaginary friend.

Now, recently Monkey has been obsessed with Princesses. Really, I mean obsessed. It's like my very own version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Aliens landed and replaced my child with one that only.wants.princessy.things. ALL.THE.TIME.

Princess shoes. Princess toys. Princess books. sheets. underwear. tiaras. costumes. wands. dolls. castles. toothpaste. toothbrushes. headbands. etc.......

So, when Monkey came home from school and started telling me stories about Yasmine, I figured she had read something about Jasmine (from Aladdin), and had an imginary princess friend!

Imagine my surprise when she introduced me to Yasmine....her new friend in late care at her Montessori.

Whoops. And here I thought you were just telling tales!

You win some, you lose some

So this morning was a mixed bag. Monkey referred to The Girls' Room as "my room" (see! told you it was coming!). And that made me smile.

On the other hand, when I dropped the girls off at school I learned that Jellybean, aka Jaws, is biting. Again. She bit two kids yesterday because she didn't want to share (her toys, her space).

Like I said, you win some (sharing is good!), you lose some (sharing stinks, am biting in outrage!).

Karma

Otherwise known as, payback's a bitch.......

Jaws

Every day I get a report from Jellybean's teachers about her day at school. You know, because she can't quite muster up the language to tell me she hated what I packed for her lunch, and ugh - can you believe it? They made us dance the hokey pokey again! I am SO over that song. I want Lady Gaga.

All joking aside, I do enjoy hearing what she did during the day. I miss her during those hours, and learning what songs she sang, or books she read - that knowledge makes me happy!

For years I've been thinking I should scan in one of the reports, so it can be preserved for posterity. I'm not going to keep every single one - but just one, one would be good.

This one made me laugh. Because of the sentence (which I underlined) about the book they are reading. I gave them that book. And we have another copy at home.

You know, so "Jaws" gets the same message over and over again.

What makes me laugh, however, isn't the book itself. It's how unflinchingly chipper the message is! Your child is biting but HEY WE'RE READING A GREAT BOOK!

Her teachers rock.

On being two....

So earlier today I mentioned that Monkey is two. With a cold. And teething.

Which........led to 25 minutes (I timed her) of a temper tantrum because I wouldn't give her the serving spoon at lunchtime.

She was eating peaches with her own spoon. But she wanted the serving spoon. Because CLEARLY it was superior to her spoon. I said no, she had a spoon already. And when she lost her sh*t I decided not to give into the tantrum. On principle, plus I thought she'd get over it.

25 loooooooooooooooooooooooooong minutes later she was still screaming and crying about the spoon. Thankfully I finally distracted her with a fork.

Smiles

So earlier today I was exhanging emails with Boulder Mama, my sister in law. Her little one, HP, has just cut her first two teeth.

HP has a gorgeous smile. I'm her aunt, but damn - this kid is GORGEOUS! Boulder Mama hopes that HP's smile won't change once all her teeth come in.

Upon reflection, I said that Monkey's smile did change.

But really, I think the change is driven more by their emergent personality and ability to use their face muscles more than anything else.

Plus, I think Monkey likes to show off her teeth, since now she smiles with this super-toothy look, almost like she is baring her teeth like an enraged chimpanzee.

And yes, I just compared my child to an angry primate.