Top Teeth

Teething is the worst. Very traumatic. Kaelyn has had a little cold since the weekend. It's Tuesday now. It's a very minor cold. Just extra sneezing and a droobly nose. But part of me now wonders if it might be partly due to teething. She had a slight temperature on and off over the weekend as well. This morning, after her bath, I laid her down on her towel and wrapped her up and SWORE I spied two little nubs of top teeth! I spotted them again later and was sure, yep, her top teeth broke through. Perhaps that's what happened last night. She was SO crabby all evening long and then was up on and off for an hour and a half. She had FINALLY been doing better at night, only getting up ONCE a night instead of 2-9 times! And then last night she was up twice but once was for an hour and a half. Ugh. I blame the teeth and hope for the best today.

This picture is of Kaelyn and her Violet dog. She loves that dog. She's figured out that she can press its hands or feet and make it make noise. However, her favorite paw to push is the on/off paw. So I'll start a song and she'll turn it off. I'll start a song, she'll turn it off, etc!

We had a fun day, for the most part. Since Kaelyn was up for an hour and a half in the middle of the night she decided to sleep in until 6:45am. That was wonderful! She had been sleeping pretty well lately, getting up only once, but then getting up for the day at like 5:30am. Not appreciated by me! Especially since she gets crabby an hour or so later from getting up too early. But refuses to go back to sleep at 5:30 when she wants to get up. The dilemma. Anyways, I was optimistic about the say since she got up so late. I had a master plan. We'd play for awhile after getting ready, I'd let her eat at 10 and then we'd hit the road. We had lunch plans across town. Just far enough away that she could nap in the car on the way.

Why is it that everytime I make a plan, Kaelyn has a different plan?! :) She got cranky at 9 and started acting tired so I took her back to her room for a nap. She slept for about 40 minutes and then nursed. We played for awhile longer before hitting the road. It was a 35 minute drive and Kaelyn had JUST napped but she was happy on the drive and just sat and looked out the window. I was relieved because longer drives don't always go well if she's not asleep. We got to Culver's and met my co-worker for lunch. Kaelyn loves Culver's. She ate sweet potatoes, but the whole atmosphere of the place puts her in a good mood. She's just cute as a big, smiling, happily screaming, poking the guy in the booth behind us (sorry sir!) Let me just say, on a side note, that everyone at Culver's is hugely friendly. I love that place not only because the kids meal (which I eat myself!) is awesome and comes with custard, but the staff is always SO friendly. They act like they know you and make you feel so welcome. Great customer service.

It was fun chatting with my co-worker and getting caught up on her life and that of her four girls. Whew, four girls! I have just one and I'm worn out! Since we were far from home and it wasn't remotely time for Kaelyn's second nap we went to the grocery store. Kaelyn didn't appreciate the short drive, but it was a short drive so I lived! :) And so did she! I got her out of her car seat and plopped her in the cart. She enjoyed rolling around the store, stealing my coupons and list and crumpling them repeatedly. There really was a helpful smile in every aisle at that Hy-vee. We were constantly smiled at, greeted, asked if we needed help finding anything (which we did since it wasn't our normal store). Perhaps it was because Kaelyn is so cute or maybe the staff is just friendly and helpful! :)

After that it still wasn't naptime so we hit the 1/2 price bookstore. Kaelyn again didn't appreciate the short drive, but what do you do! I brought a few books I had I wanted to sell so we took those in and received $4 to spend! We could have just gotten cash but what fun would that be. We headed right for the kids' section and plopped down right in the middle of the aisle. There was no one else around that area so we had it to ourselves. We did some serious damage. We pulled books down, opened them, read them, lifted the flaps, played the songs. I think we looked at half the books. Okay, so I looked at half the books. Kaelyn looked at maybe 5 and by the time we got to an Elmo book with sounds, she was hooked and refused to look at anything else. So needless to say, we ended up with that book! And a Little Miss Helpful book as well.

It was finally nearing naptime so I felt a longer drive would be all right. Kaelyn actually stayed awake halfway home. She finally fell asleep with her head on her knee, looking VERY uncomfortable, but whatever works! Since she fell asleep so late I continued to drive. I thought when I had a baby and stayed home more I would drive less, but I seem to drive MORE somedays just to keep her asleep. It would be nice if I could get her inside still sleeping. Or even stop the car and keep her asleep. But the minute that engine goes off, bam, open are those little eyes! When we got home we unloaded the groceries and got the mail, all that fun stuff. Then it was time to play.

Kaelyn has a bunch of little stuffed animals, hand sized cute little things, that we keep on the footstool so she can throw them off repeatedly. I took one of those animals and threw it straight up in the air, Wheee! I said. Kaelyn absolutely ERUPTED in laughter. Big, huge, belly laughs. So I did it again. And again. And again. She was laughing so hard I thought she might wet herself...oh wait... ;) She was having such a good time I actually called Sean just so he could hear her. I wanted to badly to get the video camera but I knew if I left the room she'd just try to crawl after me and the moment would have passed so I just enjoyed it.

The day wasn't ALL good, though. Between fun times she had moments of screaming for no particular reason. I blame the teeth. I'm not sure what else it could be. But the good times outweighed the bad, for sure. After super I picked up a chain of rings and dropped them on her tray and got more belly laughts. Sean got a little of that on video, so that's good. We had a lot to do today. I fear tomorrow because we have NO plans. I'll have to come up with something or we'll BOTH be bored stiff!

I hope the rest of the teeth just sneak up on her and appear overnight. I hate that they traumatize her. She doesn't put anything in her mouth but her fingers and the occasional sippy cup so it's hard to get her to chew on anything to help the pain any. Poor thing. I guess that's what being a baby is all about!