This morning as Andy and Turner showered and I stole a few minutes alone with the computer to blog I was reminded how busy life is. Not busy with stuff, but just busy with Turner and all the discoveries he has to make in a day. Before the shower, Andy is in the potty (of course) and Turner is watching me dry my hair. He has this two inch plastic Elmo figure. He is dancing Elmo in the window. Then he rushes into the bathroom and pulls out the tweezers from the drawer and yells something that I didn't understand. I ask him to repeat it. Over his shoulder while he continues to work on Elmo he says, "Elmo hurt. Belly hurt." I'm thinking he is doing surgery on Elmo with the tweezers. After a few minutes more, Turner explains that he is helping Elmo go poopy. I ask why he uses tweezers? Why not let Elmo poopy on the potty like Turner. I watch him think for a moment and he walks to the toilet and opens the lid and sits Elmo on it. Then he says "Elmo poopy!" emphatically highlighting poopy. Then he pulls the toilet paper off and says to me, "I wipe Elmo like Mommy wipe me." Yep, he's figuring it all out and realizing that he is in charge of Bear and Elmo and any of the other animals that grace his arms. Elmo poops several more times, and I think he (Elmo) is finished. Then Turner starts jabbering about a diaper. I look in the bedroom and he is trying to wrap Elmo's bottom with a washcloth to use as a diaper. I'm not sure why this even of playing pretend is so noteworthy today; Turner plays a lot of pretend (which I LOVE). I suppose that I'm struck by his Elmo work this morning because I'm remembering July 4th two years ago and thinking about how far Turner has grown and intellectually matured. It really is amazing. Before my computer crashed I had a book started for Turner in which I had made almost daily entries. Below is one of the entries I salvaged (there are about ten that I had saved elsewhere and could recover). It is a clear reminder of how Turner's discoveries change everyday and that when you add all of those up he really needs to be as busy as he is just to fit it all in.
July 4, 2005
Independently Toothy
This morning you bit me as I nursed you. This in itself is not completely unusual. However, this morning your bite had a bit more kick than normal. I pulled you off the breast, pushed my finger into your mouth and felt a huge mound of gum. Your father was snoring to my side so waking him was impossible. I finished feeding you and then got you to laughing using the new favorite “shake the baby” technique. As you look to the ceiling giggling I see a fleck of white in the mound of swollen gum. A tooth! It wasn’t quite a tooth yet, but it was struggling to the surface to live out its short existence in your mouth.
We went downtown and hung out at Cheapside. A restaurant by day, bar by night. On the 4th of July, however, it is both. All of Dad's friend were there. After hours of passing you from my arms to his arms to Jenny’s arms, dad finally concedes and we go home so you can stretch out and relax. After all, you are now a three-month-old teething baby that needs even more special attention. You didn’t need to be cooped up all day sleeping in people’s arms. When we get home you are so cranky and un-soothable. Again, I push my finger into your mouth and no longer feel a mound of gum but a real tooth. Dad and I pry open your mouth and peer in to find the most perfect baby tooth ever. Next to it, of course, is another pink, puffy gum. That tooth, however, won’t be here for awhile.
The fireworks started at 10 that night. After your bath and 9 PM feeding (and a hefty Tylenol dose for the stabbing pain in your mouth) you went right off to dreamland. Through the switching from car seat to stroller, loud bangs of fireworks for 10 minutes, stroller back to car seat, and car seat to cradle you never batted an eye. It was a rough day for this little, teething baby!
No comments:
Post a Comment