Toothus Eruptus – Until We Meet Again

Posted in Kids, Uncategorized by

Ok, so things did start to get a little ugly for a while after my last posts here and here on this topic. There was a lot more grizzling, crying and general miserable-ness.

I thought I would list the things that seemed to help to get us all through Four Teeth At Once (in no particular order):

Gnawing on the the wooden armrest of this chair like a rabid beaver: And wooden things in general in fact. Recommendations for wooden teething products gratefully accepted.

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Freezable teethers like these: Good for numbing sore little gums. Don’t bother with the ones that only go in the fridge.

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Cuddles: Lots of cuddles and naps and diverting of attention.

Hyland’s Baby Teething Gel: I decided to try this because it’s homeopathic. Placebo or not, prising open Little Boo’s mouth and lathering up her gums before bed seemed to help.

Children’s Panadol (occasionally): I don’t like to use it, but if she’s in pain then I will.

Thankfully, I think we have our normal baby back now. Until we meet again, baby teeth.

Toothus Eruptus 2.0 – The Tooth Wrangler

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Best way to inspect for new teeth? When trying make your little devil laugh fails, tip said child upside down (in a fun, gentle way of course) whereupon her mouth will drop open and you may be somewhat alarmed to discover not one, but four -four! top teeth ready to pop out. I nearly died.

I am simultaneously amazed by Little Boo’s generally good disposition and slightly freaked out by how many teeth are bobbing around the surface. I can see them…I can see them! *maniacal laugh*

Four at once – is that some kind of world record? My little baby is growing up. I feel a bit sad, but then I realize the end of pureeing and mooshing foods is in sight. Which means you can stay tuned for some cooking fails, they are always good fun.

Formula Tin Fun for the Creatively Challenged

Posted in Domestic misadventure by

What to do with empty formula tins? I just can’t bear to throw them away and I had until recently approximately a bazillion in our garage.

I knew, KNEW there had to be plenty of those creative types out there dabbling away at fancy looking stuff made entirely of formula tins. Castles and what-not. Recliner chairs. I took to Google to investigate further.

Sure enough, there is plenty of stuff on Pinterest devoted to this caper. Exxxcelllent.

I’m the first to admit I’m no Tonia Todman. My creativity has it’s limits. I’m impatient and my attention span for these things is pretty short, so it was inevitable that my transformations wouldn’t look much like what was going on over on Pinterest.

And let’s face it, with a 9 month old who is now skulking around on all fours mentally cataloging our currently-out-of-reach goods and chattels for future bi-pedal reference, I didn’t have time for elaborate construction.

I decided to go with cheap, simple storage and homemade musical instruments using book contact.

I scampered* off to Big W and Kmart to acquire contact. Note: the range is much better at back to school time. Makes sense really.

After about five minutes of ‘crafting’ we had 3 contact covered storage containers and 2 shake/rattle/bang-on-them-thingys (that’s what they’re called. Patent pending).

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Formula tin storage

I don’t think I need to give you a tutorial on contacting, In fact I’d better not, I’m actually not that good at it. If you look closely you can see all the bubbles. Suffice to say I covered the formula tins in contact and voila!

To make the shake/rattle/bang-on-them-thingys to one I chucked in a handful of rice, for a soft rattling sound and to the other about 6 large gumnuts** which made it a real clunker.

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Formula tin musical instruments

They may not be painted flower pots and desk caddies, but hey, not everyone is a genius when it come to crafts and all of us average types deserve to see something on the net that we can construct which embraces our capacity for making less-than-perfect-looking-but-still-entirely-functional/edible/not-dangerous things.

Happy contacting!

*ok, that’s a lie. Everyone knows it’s extremely difficult to scamper anywhere with a child/ren (unless it’s away from them with a maniacal laugh because you’ve dropped them off with their Grandparents). Let’s just say I dragged myself there at my earliest convenience.

**thank you auto-correct for amending gumnuts to guy nuts.

Toothus Eruptus 1.0

Posted in Tooth Wrangling by

One recent evening I outsmarted Little Boo with some fruit purée on my finger which I shoved into her mouth, whilst praying that she wouldn’t clamp down on it with her existing bottom two fangs. They really are quite sharp.

Oral exploration complete, I confirmed the existence of an upper right tooth. Either canine or incisor. It’s hard to tell because she doesn’t have the two front top teeth yet. Visual confirmation ensued later that evening when I managed to do enough silly things that Little Boo gave up her look of disdain and laughed with such carefree abandon as to allow me to curl up her lip and get a glimpse.

Recent expeditions to sight the tooth have yielded less positive results, as Little Boo now purses her lips together when she sees my finger coming toward her mouth. It’s difficult to pry open. Mr F had more luck last evening and even managed to show me the pearly offender, which must by now be very close to properly busting through, bringing with it our baby’s happier disposition.

Little Boo’s 5 Step Guide to Daytime Napping

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In script style, with stage directions.
[Cue daytime soapie theme music]

Step 1. Denial:
Me: Time for a sleep Little Boo. [Second guess whether she is tired, even though I know she is]

Little Boo: Listen mum, I’m really not tired. I don’t need to have a nap. [Continue playing with toys]

Me: [Pick up Little Boo and proceed to bedroom]

Step 2. Anger:
Little Boo: [Angry yelling*] Don’t you dare remove me from these toys. I’m busy, dammit. I don’t want to go to bed!

Step 3. Bargaining:
Little Boo: You seem to be serious about nap time. Very well, let me give you a big kiss right on your face. Mwah! I love you Mummy.

Me: [Put Little Boo in her sleeping bag]

Step 4. Dismay:
Me: Off to sleep now, I’ll see you in two hours. [Quick cuddles and place Little Boo in her cot, leave the room, giggle to self – 2hours! Ha!]

Little Boo: I really thought that would work, especially the kiss. If you insist on putting me in her I’m going to roll around and grizzle. And then I’m going to be quiet so you think I’ve gone to sleep. And then I will grizzle a bit more and then I’m going to talk to myself happily for a while. I will repeat this process a several times.

Me: [Wait between 5 and 15 minutes]

Step 5. Acceptance:
Little Boo: She doesn’t fall for these tricks the way she used to. Well, I suppose I could sort of just…*yawn*…close my eyes for a bit… [Light snoring]

Me: [Resume normal duties]

*If Mr F is home, more often than not the part of angry yelling will be played by pitiful wailing.