Darling Daughter

My poor, darling daughter. She's been teething, and YIKES!

This normally sweet, gentle baby who only cries when hungry or ignored for too long, has been screaming her head off for the last two days. She's drooling buckets and gumming on everything she can get her mouth on.

At the moment, her favorite teething toy is a large, bare wood block (no lead paint here), that has tiny holes all over it from the itsy-bitsy pearly whites ripping through her gums.

I am continually amazed at how quickly babies grow up. My precious daughter can sit up, crawl, pull up to her knees, scoot around in her walker, eat baby food, and is just growing by leaps and bounds.

The twins are absolutely fascinated by her. A few months ago, she was this blob who laid in her crib, wrapped in a blanket, barely moving, and not to be touched.

Now she laughs, she always cried, she babbles at them, she's mobile, and she acknowledges that the boys are there. They think she's a great animated toy to play with!

Until she knocks down the block tower they built, or grabs the piece of paper they were coloring and crumples it in her tiny, powerful fists. They like to get her in the walker, grab onto the back, and let her pull them all over the hardwood and tile floors.

Yes, she really can pull them. Neither boy weighs even 40 pounds, and she has incredibly strong little legs. With one, it's a breeze for her, with both, she has a little more trouble. And before I get turned in for child abuse, I don't actually encourage this behavior in my sons! They are sent to time-out any time I catch them doing it. But I have seen it happen, the baby pushing along in the walker with two boys hanging off the back and laughing like loons.

But hopefully those teeth will finish breaking through, and she will be back to her happy, joyous self.