Teeth!

Sam the Distractable at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show last weekend. He scored a fabulous new pair of overalls from Tracy Krauter-- black with tree frogs on one side, orange and green batik on the other.

Yeah, so the BIG news is the teeth. Or, I should say tooth. Last Sunday I was walking around Greenlake with Lisa and Sam was awake for most of the ride-- unusual for him. And he was pissy. When we paused for me to offer yet another toy thingy to amuse him, Lisa asked if he had teeth yet.
"Noo. He's going to walk before he gets teeth at the rate he's going. Besides," as I added my standard Sam caveat, "he's a thinker not a doer." At which point I poked my finger in his mouth to check and found that his lower left front tooth had broken out. However, that's the only one as he ruminates on whether or not to acquire more.

You'll see a lot of the pink strap. It's his giant, freaky teething ring. It started life as an adjustable belt to put around your black rollie-bag to distinguish it from the three bajillion other black rollie-bags at the airport. I've not really used it (I always forget) and I was looking for something that was nylon strapping. Sam has been obsessed with chewing on all the nylon straps he can get ahold of-- the belts on his high chair, on the carseat, etc. We know now it is because of the teeth. At the time we just thought he was a freaky little baby who didn't like standard chewy things. Well, he's still a freaky little baby that doesn't like standard chewy things. But now we have the Pink Strap.

Sam hanging out in his reclining chair with his pink cup. He's all man.

From this morning when I took my friend Jen Cross' idea of giving Sam some food to play with. It was millet cereal, sweet potato and yogurt. Such a lovely, grainy orange.

He likes to play with a spon as I feed him. Makes the whole process complicated but at least he's in the chair.

The classic look of annoyance at finding ourselves ON OUR STOMACH!!

Charlie is busily reading "Is Your Mama A Llama" to our pinkeyed, coughing, teething child in an attempt to lull him into a coma. He's had some weird illness for so long now he actually opens up his mouth and eagerly takes the Tylenol dropper. I have an idea for a parenting book called "Babies: They Ooze." But the reading is pretty cool. He likes to have you read the same book a couple times in a row-- he's quite clear about that, looking up at me while chewing on the pacifier as if to say "You think you are finished?" And he's very fond of rhyming books right now. If it doesn't have a linking word every two lines or so, it's useless for him. Hence the popularity of the "Llama" book.