Teething

Recently Jason and I started cleaning out the downstairs closet in an on going project in our home. The entire process led to an empty box. Something in the back of my head came forward to remind me the love children have for anything cardboard and I couldn't resist the temptation to set her in a box to see what she would do. The result:

Eureka! It's a happy baby in a box!!!

Oh wait, it's RACHEL in the box...which means she'll try to bite it.

She'd stop biting for a second....

And then she'd bite it again.

Lesson learned: she does love cardboard, but as with anything she can get her hands on, she'll try to bite it.

Last week after her horrible fever we met up with her Terry Grandparents in Lousiville and went ahead and let Rachel stay with them for a week. Jason was going to be gone and since I'd already taken 2 sick days I really didn't want to chance having to take any more while he was gone. So she's all better from the fever (still not sure what caused it, just glad it's done!)

Geri and David were so kind and brought her up to our house on Saturday afternoon. From her just being gone a week it was amazing how much strength she had gathered! She now crawls on her knees instead of pulling herself across the carpet. She now pulls herself to a standing position with almost no trouble. And I can see how much more sure of herself she's becoming in that she will hold on to the couch or other furniture and try to walk.

Her curiosity, however, is insatiable. As it should be. She wants to touch and explore EVERYTHING. Her toys are not interesting her for more than a few second. Instantly she'll see a piece of grass on the floor, or a cord, or a shoe and she simply MUST crawl towards it and MUST touch it. If possible, she MUST also try to bit on it or lick it with her mouth. So much to discover!

One thing I did notice and Jason and I aren't too happy is how fussy she is. It is almost impossible to keep her happy. I know her gums are hurting, you can see the second tooth poking through the gum. But she is fussy now 90% of the time when she used to be pretty happy once you figured out what she needed. We were at our wits end last night trying to figure out what was wrong with her.

Geri offered me some great advice that I hadn't thought of. We've been having trouble getting Oragel into her mouth. She'll see it on our finger, she'll open her mouth for our finger to go in to apply the gel, then suddenly she'll stick out her tounge and her tounge gets the gel, not her gum. Geri said she was putting it on with a Qtip, and it works like a charm! Way to go Grandma Terry!

We did have a short window of time on Saturday when Rachel was being playful and exploring some items in her room.

First, she discovered the steps I bought to use in the bathroom when we're eventually potty training her:

Do you see that mischevious little look? Oh yes, that wasn't the camera capturing a weird face. I could FEEL she felt like she was getting in to trouble and she LIKED it!
Then she discovered her Princess basket I'd gotten her a long time ago:

Ahhhh! Such a ham. I love it!

Jason had to hang on to her while I did something upstairs and when I came back here I see that he's already trying to make her a gamer:

Sunday we headed out to my parents' place as we hadn't seen them in a while. Right before we left, though, I tried to feed Rachel some peas and she was so frustrated that we wouldn't just give her a bottle which is much faster. I thought she was thirsty, so I had Jason grab one of her sippy cups to try for the first time:

I know she liked chewing on it and holding it, but I don't think she ever quite understood how to get the liquid out of it. Regardless, we've at least introduced the sippy cup. Let's hope we get that figured out soon.

At mom and dad's their neighbor came over to hold Rachel for just a bit:

But Rachel was getting tired. I kept trying to tell my mom that she'd probably need to go down for a nap, but mom had an even better idea:

This is a smart lady. GramE knows her grandbabies! Had we laid Rachel down she would have just fussed and fussed. GramE took her out to the swings where the rocking of the swings and the sunshine put her right to sleep. So sweet!

Getting Rachel to bed last night was a 2 hour ordeal. Since she's mobile now and can stand up, she does NOT want to go to sleep. I refuse to let her be rocked to sleep as she really needs to be putting herself to sleep. So we'd lay her down, she'd pull her blanket to her face a close her eyes, we'd tip toe out thinking we're such clever parents and within 2 minutes she'd be standing at the side of her bed crying. *sigh* We were so tired. We were so over this cycle. I tried to let her just cry and cry for a few minutes, but that doesn't help us get to sleep now does it? So I went in there and rocked her to calm her down and put her to bed and she was finally out. But argh!!! Used to we'd wait until we could tell she couldn't stay awake anymore and put her down and she was out. It's like she constantly gets a second wind.

I miss our sweet happy kid. This new fussy and inconsolable kid is not fun. I'm ready for teething to be done. Here's hoping they stop hurting her soon!