The Truth About Teething

I feel as if it's been so long since I last wrote anything, that I can barely remember how.

Or perhaps it's not that I can't remember, but more that I am currently trapped in a teething nightmare which saps any kind of creativity from my very soul.

Teething. Yet another thing to add to my ever growing list of things I was oh-so-mistaken about.

I imagined, in my innocent, uncorrupted, pre-baby mind, that teething was merely an event, by which one was kept awake by a crying baby for a one night, and then - Voila! A tooth would appear and happiness would once again ensue.

Ha. Ha. Ha. hahahahahahahahahhahahahahha

No.

Teething is not this beautiful joyous coming-of-age story. In fact, rather than falling into the genre of heartwarming/obstacle-overcoming/chick-flick, it really falls much more neatly into a frankenstein thriller/suspense/far-too-long/horror/slasher/gorey movie mashup.

It's been six days since my husband first noticed that there was a tooth on the way. Each day, it's moving closer and closer to the surface. We can see it through the gum line. Getting whiter, and whiter and 'surely it must be through by now' .... but it isn't. The gum gets redder, her nose gets snottier, she dribbles so badly we are changing bibs hourly. So much misery created by one little (although it does look massive in her mouth) tooth.

Bubs has become clingy in all new ways. She has now started screaming when I leave her at day care. Literally, screaming. Crawling across the floor, tears streaming, screaming.

It is absolutely horrendous. I feel like I am torturing her. In fact, just two days ago, for no reason at all, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I was letting her down in some unimaginable way. She wasn't even home. I very nearly rang the daycare to check that she was ok.

And so, as the days tick on, she now doesn't want her food and we are back to multiple bottles of formula a day. She won't open her mouth for bonjela, she refuses to bite her teething ring. She cries and screams and squirms and won't let anyone hold her except for me, unless I am not in the room and she can't see or hear me.

Because she won't open her mouth, we have to hold her upside down to see if the tooth is through yet. She does love that, I must admit, she thinks it's great fun. But it does make me feel slightly guilty, that we aren't doing it for her benefit.

So, tooth number one is on it's way.

Only 25 more to go.

Gender Stereotypes Abound

Hubby and I were out on a date (by which I mean, shopping for baby when we finally get a chance to be by ourselves), when we stumbled across this set of books.

At first, I was puzzled.

Surely these couldn't be that bad. Surely, if I purchased one for Bean, she could read them and not be affected by the apparently rampant gender stereotypes.  

But as we proceeded to read through each 'book', my puzzlement quickly morphed into disgust.

Were they really asking the kids in the overtly girly book to smile and shout like princesses and cheerleaders, while asking the boys to shout and count like knights and astronauts?

Is this what little girls are still being told they should grow up to become?

By the time we had 'read' each 'book', my disgust had turned into a righteous fury!

How could this be allowed? WHY, was this allowed? Who was behind publishing such horrendous sexist drivel?

Unfortunately, they got worse. The kids reading the pink book with pictures of girls on every page, were told to pose, wave, smile and do any other manner of things involved with looks, while the blue book with pictures of obviously male characters on every page were told to do things which involved using either physical strength, or smarts (also, a horrendous sweeping generalisation)!

Yes. That really DOES say, POSE LIKE A MODEL.

 My husband had to literally (and I am not exagerating), force me to leave the store as I felt my blood beginning to boil.

These books, are everything that is wrong with the world.

The Little Things

There are moments, as a mum, where you are struck in the face with a heart glow so strong that you think you might die from a joy overdose.

As my little one gets older and more aware of her environment, her personality is starting to really shine through and it is truly delightful to watch.

These are the things I love the most.

• Picking her up from daycare: I love this so much, I actually find myself getting a bit excited to pick her up as the time draws closer. I love walking into the nursery and seeing her doing her thing, unaware that I am there. Then, when I call her name, watching her turn in surprise to find where I am, then when she does, seeing her face light up, her arms flapping in excitement, and then, if I'm really lucky, bending down to pick her up as she either crawls to where I am, or reaches up to me. Also, hearing the daycare teachers exclaim about how excited she is is pretty cool too. I am still her favourite!

• Having her reach out to me when someone else is holding her: This is a little bit of a guilty and inconvenient pleasure. Sure, I feel bad for the person holding her, and at times, I just wish she would give me a few moments of baby free time, but that doesn't diminish the warm fuzzies when I see those chubby arms desperately trying to reach me from someone else's arms!

• Seeing her get stupidly excited by the cat, and seeing the cat get equally stupidly as terrified: This never fails to crack me up. As soon as the cat enters the room, Bean stops whatever she is doing and locks her gaze onto her. Her face is an inexplicable combination of pure joy, awe and amazement that such an animal exists. The cat however, will only ever wait until Bean has managed to crawl almost to arms length away, before quickly removing herself, it's like a torturous game of tag that will never be completed.

• Getting a giggle: This, is hard, hard work. Our little one isn't much of a giggler. She is very smiley however, and very friendly, but getting her to laugh, that takes real effort. When she does laugh though, it brings everyone running to see. You can't help but smile and giggle yourself, and no matter how much of a dick you have to make of yourself to get her to laugh, you will keep doing it until the giggles are exhausted, because hearing her laugh, is just, so, delightful. I think possibly, that's what angels sound like. I'm not even joking.