teeth

3 months ago Dr Lady told us "those top teeth are well on their way, you should see them anytime now.

Yesterday Tommy was still sporting a two-toothed grin as he had been for 3 months. Exactly how much does the Dr. know anyway?

This morning one of the top teeth has finally broken through.

You know how sometimes you watch a person struggle and struggle through something, then they finally cross the finish line and you're just so proud of them? You know how good that struggle was for them and how it was all worth it and it made them better and stronger?

This was not like that.

This was like how sometimes your child won't let go of you because apparently being held by a human being who is standing up is the only comfortable position and everything else makes him scream until he bleeds.

Yesterday has easily earned the title of Worst Day Ever because the demon who possessed my child's body literally screamed bloody murder every time I put him down. But because I'm a very experienced and mature mom, I understand that it's OK for him to scream sometimes and I put him down anyway.

In his crib.

After prying his freakishly strong arms from around my neck.

After tearing my oversized mom t-shirt from the grips of his tiny hands.

After forcing him to stop crawling up my body 3 times.

And I closed the door to his room and hid in my closet.

After the longest 20 minutes of my life, because I thought my ears were simply going to die and fall off the sides of my head, I went back in to rescue him from the apparent horror of his crib.

Which is when I saw the blood.

All over his mouth and hands.

And I picked him up and kissed him better and his freakishly strong grip was nowhere near strong enough to pull him close enough to me.

Wiping blood of your child's face after you've listening to him screaming for the past 20 minutes might be the most gut-wrenching thing a woman can do.

This morning I'm certain the blood came from his mouth because I can see the open sore right next to his new tooth.

Now I find myself wondering if I really think teeth are all that? I mean all the best foods can be gummed anyway (mashed potatoes, ice cream, popcorn), so is it really necessary that we do this again for every tooth that needs to enter his mouth?

They're all gonna fall out anyway....I say we just skip the whole process.