Her new bud and her new bud

I'm, once again, reminded how quickly Baby B is growing up--and right before my very eyes. Until recently, Baby B's daycare class of eight infants had just one boy in it, but he's a bit of a bump on a log (oh, did I just say that? I meant to say he's quite a delightful, active, young fella). But some recent infant-room graduates made space for some newcomers, a couple of whom have a Y chromosome in their genetic makeup. One of them is ten or eleven months old, so he won't be in the room that much longer, but another, who is a mere four months old (but is the size of and moves around nearly as well as Baby B), will be sticking around for longer.

The teachers regale us with stories of Baby B and the boy we will call Squealy D. Apparently the two of them like to climb over each other and play. Apparently they like to "kiss" on each other. Apparently they like to squeal back and forth to each other, sometimes the lone ones awake when the rest of the babies are trying to nap.

Ah, young love.

I haven't seen them fully engaged in serious playtime yet, but when I picked up Baby B a few days ago, one of the teachers had Squealy D in her lap and Baby B was playing on the floor at her feet. Squealy D was making it quite clear with his excited grin and emphatic gestures toward the floor that he'd rather be down there with Baby B, and they were able to play tug o' war with a book before we needed to leave.

*******

Pretty much every day, I feel Baby B's gums, checking for signs of chompers aching to make an appearance. But nearly every day, my finger felt the gummy, slimy smoothness of a tooth-free jaw. Sometimes I've been convinced I might have felt something, but upon closer inspection, I realized it probably wasn't really anything more than just my hopeful imagination.

Until this morning.

I ran my finger across her gums this morning, expecting to feel the usual nothingness, when I cut my finger on something sharp and it started bleeding. Okay, just kidding. But my finger did catch on something it hadn't previously felt before. Doing my usual "get her to open her mouth without getting too annoyed with me" maneuver, I peered into her mouth to find the hint of a tooth to come shortly. Now, I know it's possible we'll stay at this stage for another month, or she could have a tooth pop through by the end of the weekend, but either way, it's exciting to have some progress. Look out, Squealy D...your new girlfriend's got a new weapon on the way!