words and teeth and all things mouthy

One of Gavin's favorite noises recently has been "buh", as you know. Sometime in the last week he began exclaiming "oh buh!" at random intervals. It sounds a lot like "Oh Boy!", so Jason and I started repeating "oh boy!" after Gavin anytime he said "oh buh!" Soon it became a game of repeat, repeat, repeat, which eventually evolved into him trying to put the -oy sound at the end of "buh." Now he actually says "oh boy," although the "boy" comes out as "buh-ee" or "beee" or "boh-eee." This evening he began trying to say "belly." It comes out sounding an awful lot like "boy" but with a slight extra pause in the middle.

About a week ago, we discovered that Gavin's fourth molar finally broke through. We breathed a collective (does two make a collective?) sigh of relief that, for now, teething was (we hoped) drawing to a close. We hoped wrong. For tonight, I discovered that Gavin has another tooth coming through, this time one of his eye teeth (upper left). Oh lovely. At least it helps explain the crankiness lately. And at least we bought some Hyland's Teething tablets the other night, along with some baby orajel (which he HATES with a passion because of how it makes his tongue feel, but ohmygoodness is it funny watching his reaction to it!).

Along with this new vocal and dental development, Gavin is growing increasingly mouthy. Really, he's just turning into more and more of a Toddler-with-a-capital-T, particularly when it come to screaming and throwing a fit if things don't go his way. I have to laugh sometimes because it is so funny to see him getting so utterly bent out of shape over what is in my eyes such a minor matter. This morning, for instance, we were outside. He had a long skinny pole that you use to stake plants to in the garden, and was walking around pushing it in front of him. It kept catching on cracks in the sidewalk. Each time it would catch and he couldn't make it go forward his face crumpled up angrily, heart-brokenly, and he bent forward at the waist 90 degrees and screamed and cried for about three seconds, then stood up and tried again. Two feet later, it would catch, he would bend over and cry, stand up, try again. Over and over like that, all the way down the sidewalk. After a bit I went to try and help him because the pole was stuck in the grass. The instant I touched that pole -- WHAM!!! -- tantrum hit like a Mack truck. And, since I'd interfered, it raised his overall frustration level a notch. In the end I picked him up, pole and all, and carried him back to the house. We went inside and had some crackers, and things were better (for awhile anyway, until the next meltdown).