Andrea’s Weblog

Well, we went from pre-teething directly into teeth crowning. I didn’t
notice until Frank pointed it out last night that she’s getting her two
bottom teeth. I had been checking her top gums and hadn’t even
considered that the bottom teeth are the first to come. After all,
don’t you usually lose your top teeth first? The last two nights she’s
been waking up every hour or two. As I type she’s still sleeping and
it’s 9 am. She’s never slept so late!

She’s starting to realize that she can move her body to be where she
wants. She’ll go after toys on her play mat and end up facing a
completely different direction as she rotates around the mat. It won’t
be long before she’s rolling over from her back to tummy – you can see
her practicing this move. The only stumbling block is how to keep the
arms out of the way.

We’re trying to help her practice sitting up, which she’s doing fairly
well. She was sitting up in her stroller at a craft fair last week
holding onto the tray on the front of the stroller. Maybe holding on
isn’t the correct way to describe how she latched on to the tray with
her gums and gnawed at the tray. At least the tray has a convenient cup
holder in which the drool could collect.

Since she enjoys sitting up so much, we got her an activity center.
It’s like a walker, but without the wheels and with more toys. She got
to try them all out in the store and we ended up picking the Einstein
Discover and Play
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002U1SFE/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/
002-5137592-6584053). We were planning on getting her one for
Christmas, but she really seems to want to be upright and have things
she can gnaw on, so I didn’t want to wait. (Plus, it will keep her busy
while I prepare for the holidays.) It’s so neat seeing her learn how to
operate each gadget on the toy. Of course, she went directly for the
one that makes the most noise.

Update: Elizabeth is awake now and you can actually see some results of
her teething effort. A tooth has broken through during the night! (How
many more teeth does she get?) She is in a good mood talking and
laughing so maybe it’ll be a better day.