Teeth and other developments

Back in November, a woman at a consignment store, seeing Kalina sucking on her lower lip, informed me that Kalina was teething. Over Christmas, the internet let me know the same thing, judging by the random redness of her cheeks. At a playdate in January, Kalina's excessive drool was a dead giveaway, as was her fever in February. Essentially, people have been telling me for more than half of Kalina's life that she's teething.

So imagine my surprise on Monday morning when gumming turned into gnawing as I felt a kitten-sized tooth sprouting up from Kalina's gum. Matt was able to (ouch!) verify it later in the day, and it's official: Kalina almost has a tooth.

And what a tooth! At just a millimeter or so past her gums, Tooth has made it so we're lucky to get our knuckles out of her mouth still attached (yes, we occasionally use our fingers as teethers). We're beginning to wonder if all her teeth will be canines, but we couldn't be prouder.

This all means one thing: she's teething. Yikes?

I've pictured Kalina timing the introduction of teeth to correspond with the tail end of successive bouts of sleep training, so that we'd be crying it out in the middle of the night until next Christmas.

Alternatively, I've refused to believe Kalina would ever grow teeth--she certainly doesn't need them to eat with or make her cuter. And I have to admit that I'll miss her sweet, gummy smile.

However, I'm thrilled to report that Kalina's tooth-in-progress has hardly made her crankier or more wakeful (during the night, at least--naps are another matter) than she had been before. I'd insert a smart remark here about the various reasons we may not notice teething-specific fussiness, but she's really been quite nice lately so I won't.

We feel like we've won the lottery, but we also feel like we're owed an easy bout of teething after Kalina's first 6 months of angsty boredom and months 3.5-8 of mostly rotten sleep.

Meanwhile, Kalina continues to crawl reluctantly, as crawling is contrary to the core truth of her philosophy of transportation, which states that walking is the only acceptable mode. She knows how to "cruise" along couches and tables, but chooses not to for the same reason--walking should be in a forward motion, never side-to-side. Side-to-side walking is for crabs, not princesses.

Kalina will admit openly that she had trouble reconciling her need to transport herself with the fact that she can only do so using her knees (for now), but has worked it out by using one knee and one foot as she crawls. In this gimpy way, she is able to get around fairly well, gladly sacrificing speed and ease of movement to keep in step with her philosophy. Pun intended.

The house is Kalina's playgym as she pulls/pushes up on anything an inch or higher off the ground (or attempts to), then proudly smiles around and waits for applause when she makes it. And then topples over. And then cries. And then does it all again 30 seconds later, so that Mommy can't so much as fix herself a bowl of cereal without rushing to the baby's rescue several times.

She can stand no-handed for a while, especially if she's distracted. (How long is "a while?" I wonder all the time. Long enough for me to pour milk on my cereal and/or eat a bowl? Or just barely long enough for me to dash over and catch her by the armpits as she loses her balance?) She can even sit down on her own sometimes. She gleefully chases the cats at every opportunity, pulling us behind her with our hands clamped in her no-nonsense grip.

Babyproofing is something we now discuss daily in our attempt to protect Kalina's pretty head and brilliant brain, as is buying the girl a helmet.

Also cute: she loves carrying small objects with her wherever she goes and turning the pages of books. It should be noted that board books are the only ones strong enough to survive even one page-turn.

Video: A not-too-exciting, but still cute sequence of Kalina playing nicely with Mommy and Daddy a couple weeks ago before the urge to pull up really hit. Those were the days!

Photo: I sewed Kalina a dress and made her a cloth ball to match. She's chewing on a measuring tape, which doubles as a teether. As does everything nowadays.