31 for 21, Day 2: third tooth is here!

this week, i finally mustered up enough courage to stick my finger into maya's mouth to see if she was indeed teething. these last couple of weeks she seems to have the classic symptoms of teething (chewing on her hand ever minute she can, a runny nose and refusing to eat even her favorite food, toast). only the runny nose and the refusing of toast started to make me think this was really the moment of truth. it has taken most of this year to even get out the two teeth she has. and after the last one, it took about a month and a half for it to finally be seen, i was starting to wonder if something nutritional was missing in her diet. because of my concern we started to give maya supplements. more on that later. well i'm happy to report that her third tooth is finally here. i could feel the little ridges of it breaking past her gum just this week.

whoohoo! i can't tell you how this makes me feel. mostly happy of course with a little dash of sadness for all the pain and lack of sleep she and i will have to endure. but overall i'm excited. just the thought that she might have 3 teeth soon makes me smile. this means more are coming and one day in the near future she will be able to eat "real" solid foods. it sounds strange maybe to some, but you can only do so much with pureed or baby foods. i'm no expert at feeding a toddler, but when your toddler only has a couple of teeth, it sure does limit your options.

anyway, maya's feeding therapist says that she is doing just great. she is starting to chomp and she loves the crunchy stuff. i never thought i'd be so worried about how my daughter eats...yes, what she eats i figured that much, but not "how" she eats. i can't help but think about how learned our behaviors are, even when it comes to eating. the way a tongue moves in a mouth, side to side, up and down, thrusting motion, it makes all the difference in the world to the awareness of the placement of food.

when maya graduated to puffs, well i was so relieved. puffs are magical, they taste like cheerios, but they melt in your mouth. they are portable, they are dry, not wet like baby food, and maya just loves them. lets just say it makes my life a lot easier. i dream of the day when she can hold her own snack up and eat them on her own. it's actually quite ironic the little things that make me happy now. in this case, puffs, snack cups and maya's brilliant three tooth smile.