little pearl

Jed was a very sad baby yesterday morning.  By 8am he was ready for his first nap of the day, and after sleeping for an hour, he woke up very unhappy.  I played with him, and he cried.  I let him chase the cat, which brought a fleeting smile to his face, but it was gone as quickly as it had arrived.  I fed him - that pacified him for about 15 minutes, but then he was all tears once again.  I read him some books.  He flapped his arms, rubbed his eyes, and cried. I couldn't interest him in any of his toys.  After about 90 minutes of this, I placed Jed on the living room floor and set about making his lunch.  On yesterday's menu was rice cereal with apples, zucchini, and ginger.  As I was preparing the puree, I heard a familiar rattle from the other room.  "Uh-oh," I thought.  Jed had found the cat bowl again, and was playing with the food it contained.

"Uh-oh!"  I said loudly from the kitchen, in an effort to startle him and discourage any thoughts he may have had of eating the cat food until I could reach him.  I picked him up and did a quick sweep of his mouth to make sure he wasn't hiding anything.  As my finger brushed his lower gum, I felt something sharp.  "Jed, you have a tooth!" I exclaimed to no one, since Jed and I were the only ones in the house and he didn't understand a word I said (except for his name, which he knows well).  I whisked him away to the bathroom to rinse his hands, set him on the counter, and tried to get a good look at his first pearly white.  Every time I pried his mouth open, though, he stuck his tongue out, thereby covering his little nub of a tooth so I couldn't see it.  I did eventually catch a glimpse though.

I didn't think I would get very excited when Jed got his first tooth; after all, it doesn't reflect on his abilities, or any above-average genes he may have inherited from his father or me.  I, like other moms, get excited when he can DO something new - smile, laugh, coo and babble, roll over, crawl, cruise (that's a new one), etc.  And even though every baby reaches those milestones at different ages, and when that happens has little to no bearing on their success in later years, it's still exciting to watch.  And it's easy to get caught up in tracking Jed's developments compared to the average age - who doesn't want their child to laugh, walk, and talk "early", and be considered "sociable", "strong", or "smart"?

But what would you say about a baby who teethed early?  "Boy, that kid sure is...???"  What?  I knew that Jed would get his teeth eventually, not having them wasn't slowing down his eating (he's had 30 different foods and 4 spices so far), and his toothless old-man grin was adorable.  So I was in no particular rush for his first tooth to make an appearance (Not to mention the unfortunate truth that teething itself is miserable for all involved.  Plus, now when he gnaws on my fingers it's more painful - part of me is very glad I'm no longer nursing.).

But I still found myself getting a little emotional over Jed's first tooth - wistful for the cute toothless days of the past, but enthused for the signs that my baby is growing up.  (Actually, that part made me a little bit sad too.  But mostly excited.)

This morning before 5am, though, when the little one woke up screaming bloody murder, there was no excitement whatsoever.