Cutting teeth

Ronan's thrilled with the presence of his lower incisors. Almost all the other babies in our playgroup have chompers -- some came as early as 4 months! -- but I always liked his big gummy toothless smile. It's funny that both teeth are coming in at exactly the same time, so when I rub my finger on them, it feels like one wiiiiiide sharp tooth! So far he hasn't had many problems with teething pain or inflammation (knock on wood), and he's thoroughly enjoying chewing his stuffed animals, bibs, bananas, books, blocks, hair, pretty much anything he can get his hands on....

Our sojourn into the world of solids has been a bumpy one recently. He loves his cereals (rice, oatmeal, barley), but once we started him on pureed veggies his face broke out in a rash and he got really upset! He ate his green beans, yellow squash, and peas with such gusto that I think the beans and the peas pushed him over the edge. The doc said his rash & fussiness could have been due to several things -- teething, saliva, food "sensitivity" (don't know how that's different from allergy), or it could just be one of those inexplicable baby rashes that come and go for no reason. He didn't think it was a true food allergy, otherwise it would have been all over his body. Nevertheless, we scaled back to just cereal and milk for the rest of the week and his rash cleared up.

We've decided to skip the bottled baby foods for awhile and go more natural. He had mushed banana for the first time today and lapped it up! Next week we'll try sweet potato and then avocado and maybe tofu. Avocado, which I used to hate until a couple years ago, is supposed to be one of the best foods for babies -- who knew?? Good fats for healthy brains. I can't wait to start making food for him (well, that's in addition to the food I already make for him!). It's one of the things about motherhood that I've always looked forward to.