Saturday, May 24, 2008

Growing pains, in more ways than one

Pumpkin has been particularly fussy and needy this past week, causing me to feel very sorry for myself, wondering why he is making my life so miserable. Excellent mothering skills, don't you think? My baby has been clingy and irritable and instead of feeling sorry for him, I'm coddling myself?! Pathetic.

I finally figured things out yesterday and it made me cry. He's getting his first tooth: the lower left. Hidden within those tears was the guilt of pitying myself instead of my poor sweet babe, whose precious little mouth had been hurting him. While I wasn't expecting it because Starbeans' didn't get his first tooth until he was 9 months old, I had just checked last week - and found nothing, not even a bump. This week, a wee tooth is poking its head through. Pumpkin is 7 months old (or thereabouts).

But first and foremost, it made me cry because I'm going to miss that toothless little grin. My sweet baby is growing and changing and soon he'll be my little toddler instead of my little infant. That is hard for a mama to take. I get teary just thinking about it. I can remember snuggling with Diego [Starbeans] at two months and weeping sad sad tears, imagining him in the future - no longer my precious two month old. Now I can hardly remember him at that age without looking at pictures; I feel the exact same way about him at almost 3, with all his big words and kindled imagination.

The growing pains of mothering!! It gives me a much better idea of how my own mother felt, and feels. I love you, Mom! A lot.

Soothing his wee gums

Back to Pumpkin's tooth, I immediately located the little teething-thingamabob and put an ice cube in it (a gift from EVE, formerly known as EW5). He loves it. With Diego, we tied an ice cube in a baby washcloth and let him chomp - that worked really well too.

I would also like to note that our kitchen remodel will finally be finished next week: my BIL is coming out to do the countertops, backsplash, and floor. He specializes in decorative concrete, so the finished product will be akin to polished stone. I am so pleased to finally get rid of this N-A-S-T-Y kitchen floor. See the carpet?? Gak!! What were they thinking?

2 comments:

Jenni said...

Oh don't be too hard on yourself ;) Even after four kids and many many teething gums, I still have a hard time figuring out what's wrong with them, and yes, struggle with a pity party with myself every now and again. We all get over it, and thankfully we usually figure it out and we all feel much better afterwards! Cait got a bee sting on her lip today, poor baby! Sad thing was I was comforting her for a few minutes, without realizing the stinger was still in her lip injecting it's venom! She has a fat lip but is surprisingly doing quite well. I would cry too! Bless you, have a great day!

Emily said...

Sometimes kids make us sad/mad/frustrated--it's their job--even if they aren't teething. Thanks for owning it. :) And we love them for it when they look so cute in that one outfit running down the street or they say that adorable thing that you never expected. :)