New Tooth = Major Ouch (For Me)!

                  11 Months

Aubree finally hit a milestone on Saturday when I noticed her first tooth poking it's way out of her gum.  It's her bottom left front tooth.  We were on our way home from church and I put my finger in her mouth to clear some of her doll's hair that had gotten caught in there and I felt something sharp.  It's about time!  I had heard that if they don't get teeth by 12 months, it's possible they'll do an x-ray to see if they have teeth.  But further than that, a friend of mine has a daughter who didn't get her first tooth until 17 months and they went through a lot of unpleasantness in trying to determine what the problem was.  I didn't want want Aubree to go through any of that.  That being said, I wish the tooth would go back to where it came from.  Yesterday afternoon she started biting down while she was nursing.  Last night I had blood stains all over my shirt it had gotten that bad.  I feel like how I did when I first started nursing Calleigh and I had to get the nipple guards.  It is not a good feeling whatsoever.  While she nurses I can feel my heart beating very rapidly and I'm on constant guard watching her trying to anticipate when she may bite down.  I've tried pushing her face into my breast to get her to stop (because she can't breath) and then I've also flicked her cheek which of course, caused her to start bawling....so I'm not sure if I'll do that again.  Anyway, she bit some more before I put her to bed tonight but I think those were accidents.  Regardless, this has to stop or I'm going to be in really tough shape.

Right now I'm writing to you from my parents.  We arrived in Boston last night in what can only be described as horrible timing.  As I think I've mentioned, our friends Allen and Tangie have been expecting twins on May 2.  We knew they would be here sooner since they're twins and the countdown has been on for weeks.  They thought the birth was imminent weeks ago but it wasn't to be.  She ended up getting induced yesterday morning and they were born last night at 7:19 and 7:22, respectively....just as we were taking off on our flight.  Go figure.  Their names are Kohlden and Madelyn.  I'm quite bummed about not getting to see them until next week but we're very happy that all went so well.

Our trip down was fairly smooth other than a delay of about an hour taking off.  We have been scared by some travel horror story of late (Ron & Elaine missed their flight) having to do with security so we got there almost two hours in advance.  Naturally, we got to the gate in under 10 minutes but at least we were then able to enjoy a leisurely (of course, I use the word "leisurely" very loosely when you have two little kids) dinner at Outback.  While we waited at the gate, Calleigh made a new friend named Courtney.  Calleigh immediately ran up to me and proclaimed so excitedly, "She has the same name as you!!"  Courtney was two and a half and she talked incredibly well.  She and Calleigh were like two peas in a pod and I swear, you would have thought they were teenagers just listening to them gab.  Calleigh would say "I love your braids," and then Courtney would say "I love your shirt." and so on and so on it went.  And then, they ended up in the row behind us on the plane.  Unfortunately for Courtney's parents, they didn't bring any movies so they were in full entertainment mode with her the whole time while Calleigh watched "Wallace and Gromit" pretty much the entire flight.  After Aubree had a bite (ha, ha) to eat, she conked out and we didn't hear from her again.  Our flight landed about 10:40 so it turned out to be a late night especially for Calleigh.  The highlight of Calleigh's day today was taking a walk with Gigi through the woods behind the house since that's not something she gets to do at home.  The same woods that Ricky, Shawn, and I played in as kids.  Those were the good old days when kids could play outside by themselves.

                      "I can't see anything"

                  "Oh, so this is how you do it!"

                           Calleigh and Courtney

Sunday we hit the third of our four Disney park tours.  This time it was Hollywood Studios.  I don't think we'll be back there for a very long time.  They didn't have much to offer in the way of kids stuff except for Playhouse Disney which is a live show featuring Mickey, Handy Manny, and a bunch of other characters I've never heard of.  We noticed how truly "sheltered" Calleigh is when the show started and they wanted the kids to shout out lines from the corresponding TV shows and of course, Calleigh didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about.  She hasn't even seen half a second of a Disney show on TV.  But, she enjoyed it nonetheless.  There was some rain again but this time we were much better prepared.

                  We have no idea who these characters are but Calleigh was excited to get her picture with them.

Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Kevin arrived at our house on Saturday night and we enjoyed their company until we departed last night.  They are down for the week visiting David and Yully.  We are so glad to have them stay at our house and save us a bunch of money by taking care of our dogs so we didn't have to kennel them.

On that note, I'm heading for the bed.  Last night when we got here from the airport, Aubree decided she didn't want to go to sleep in the Pack 'N Play so she bunked with me in the bed (which never goes well for me).  That left Duncan to fend for himself in the other spare bedroom.  Tonight she went to sleep in about 5 minutes so Duncan's back in with me.  Calleigh is fending for herself in the spare bedroom though.

                 Shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond.