Teething is a Bitch

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If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been blogging with as much abandon over the past month or so (OBVIOUSLY you’ve noticed that, I mean it’s not like you work or have 47 Homeland episodes to catch up on or small mouths to feed), well, that’s because it’s been a hectic summer of mom-ing, writing my novel, getting our house ready to move back into (T minus a couple of weeks!) and working on strategies to help my child avoid compulsive behavior therapy caused by ipad overuse, which is an actual thing I am not creative enough to make up. (I have in all honesty come up with NO strategies, which is why I plan to write a blog post about “unplugging” soon. Which is going to actually be a cry for help. Stay tuned).

Anyway, I’ve been super busy wiping up hummus from under our feet (naturally), and I haven’t had time to write separate blog posts about all of the numerous (read: not that numerous) topics swirling around in my mind, so I decided to just address some of them briefly here.

First of all, teething. WTF?! My near-2-year-old has a bunch of pointy teeth sticking through his swollen gums, and he has neither the fully developed communication skills to ask Mommy and Daddy for Advil, nor the knowledge of what a popsicle is. I just think this is unfair, but whatever.

Second, CHOO CHOO TRAINS WITH MAGNETS ON THE ENDS, which are basically ALL CHOO CHOO TRAINS. My kiddo is totally obsessed with trains and train tables and will stand there playing with the cars and the tracks for HOURS, which is quite miraculous because who knew transportation could be so fascinating? But about forty-five minutes into the activity, he starts completely breaking down because the train cars keep coming apart andΒ they don’t make it obvious which ends stick together. I mean I’m a 34-year-old person and I have to trial-and-error it myself. So why the frog don’t they MAKE THE MAGNETS COLOR-CODED or something? Because it’s really frustrating to my specific kid so please do something about it, thanks.

Third, is anyone else’s child infatuated with the actual animal or truck or whatever random noun is pictured on the front of his/her pajamas? Because my kiddo has now taken to really wanting to wear a certain pajama shirt (Truck! Train! Bumblebee!) to bed, and when that particular one is dirty I am like mentally cursing myself for not ordering fifty of the same one on Amazon. But then I read that that’s bad to do (the Amazon-ing) because your child has to learn that he/she can’t have his/her fave shirt every night and it’s our job as parents to crush their little dreams. So now I am like, constantly convincing my kid that that fish pajama shirt is cool even though we both know it isn’t.

What’s on your mind lately, parent-wise (or non-parent-wise – I’m game!) Is anyone else surprised that your child is so into a certain activity (like trains) that you never even paid attention to pre-kid? xox

20 thoughts on “Teething is a Bitch

  1. First of all, tell those Amazon bashers to suck it! I can’t count the number of times I’ve pretended to look for something that was hopelessly lost. With my handy Amazon Prime, I can miraculously find it tomorrow! Great idea color coding the magnets! Maybe I’ll dab a little nail polish on one pole so the kids don’t hear me swear when I lose that little game I play in my head. Oh, and teething is evil…pure evil.

    1. LOVE that — now I just need to make sure Leo’s favorite animal/stuffed creature/obsession is Amazon Primable, and I’ll never ever ever have to worry that he’ll lose “Rover” or whoever. BRILL!

      1. Hells yeah! If not, buy 2 and keep one hidden in the box. It seems that there is always a new baby or kid party catching me by surprise – BOOM!!…Instant gift!

    2. We bought twenty favorite glow in the dark rubber duckies after Charlotte lost hers at the airport. Before there was amazon prime, so it took like a week for them to come in. By the time we had received them – she was over it…

      1. That sucks! I couldn’t imagine how I’d manage without it. I use it for groceries, too – especially hard to find items that the market probably has but I refuse to spend time looking. My kids recognized the Target logo and Amazon smiley box before Elmo! Whenever we end up with extra replacements, I volunteer to do the goody bags for the next class party.

  2. When my second kid got her last tooth, I bought myself a pair of shoes, which were not at all on sale. I’d earned them, one tooth at a time.
    xo
    Meredith (badsandy.com)

  3. I love that we need to “stay tuned” to read your thoughts on “unplugging.”

    Much of what you’ve said here describes my little tyke to a T. That’s T as in Teething and Transportation-obsessed and T-shirt-fussy. (Well, he’s no longer teething, but when he was, he developed a nasty habit of bashing his head on everything. Apparently a surprising percentage of boys do this. Unsolicited tip: keep head bangers away from single pane windows.)

    Anyway, lately: I’ve been battling with Noodle’s constant running and stomping. Driving. Me. Insane. Did I mention constant. I meant CONSTANT!! (He’s currently occupied with completely destroying a DVD case by — you guessed it — stomping on it. I haven’t the energy to continue the fight this morning….)

    1. I love that your kid also suffered from the three T’s! (I mean, I actually don’t love that at all. Poor little guy… and poor you, ha ha). But I love that you get what I’m going through. Thanks for that! xox

      1. We had to pad Sam’s crib by tying chair cushions all around it, he head bangs so much (started around 8 mos, he’s now 20 mos). The pediatrician said not to worry, but I’m eager for him to grow out of it. I forget about the padding so it’s always funny to hear houseguests comment on it: “Is one of your boys more… active?… than the other?”

  4. You are hilarious. My boys are doing many of the same things. We went to the children’s museum on a rainy day last weekend, and Tyson played at the train table for like 30 min. straight, and cried when Sam (and Dave and I) were all bored and it was time to move along. If I weren’t vehemently opposed to having one more giant plaything in our house I’d be finding a train table for home, stat (I may very well give in anyway). They are obsessed with their DOG pajamas, which have dogs on the feet. Last night they pointed to their (bare) feet in other pajamas and yelled “DOG” so apparently it’s enough for them to remember the dog footie PJs πŸ™‚ Finally, I think Ty might chew his fingers off if those damn canine teeth don’t come in soon, poor thing. His gums have been sore for weeks.

  5. Teething at 2 must suck. Sorry! We’ve had similar conversations about “favorite” shirts (everyone is a favorite) being dirty and in the wash. The threes are all about battling of the wills. I just gotta hold my ground and win this year, haha.

  6. We don’t have favorite shirts, but we do have favorite hats (Cardinals!) and favorite bowls (purple!). Gavin always asks for his favorites, but when mommy can’t give them to him, because they’re dirty or she accidentally washed and dried it and now its 3 sizes too small, he does a pretty good job of transitioning to his second favorite (White Sox and green!). =)

    Also, the other day, we went into our favorite Italian gelato shop. Gavin was so captivated by the train table (smart folks – get those families in the door!) that he barely wanted any of my gelato (ok, maybe they’re not so smart folks – get ’em in the door and then they don’t buy anything, because it will melt before our kids show any interest in wanting something to eat!). ha.

    1. Wait! That is genius! Maybe I’ll get a few moms here to pitch in to buy train tables for our favorite restaurants. Then, I could eat my own food….by myself…..uninterrupted….while it’s still hot! I’ll be prepared for the “time to go tantrum” instead of the random, pop-up mid-meal one.

  7. Ahh, you made me reminisce about trains. My 9-year-old son used to be obsessed with all things Thomas. Now . . . he doesn’t even remember liking them. Now I plan to force our massive collection on our 19-month old when he’s ready. Because–that’s a lot of $$ in train paraphernalia!

    One of my daughters is WAY into books now. She’s going into first grade and is a great reader. Now THAT is a hobby I totally get and love to support.;)

    BTW, summer blogging is hard. Summer anything is hard. So much schlepping.

    I just finished my last “iPhone addiction” piece for the Jewish Daily Forward. It will go up in a few weeks. I made some great progress towards being LESS of an addict. I’ll make sure you see the article when it goes up.

    Great to touch base!

    1. Yes, Nina, I can’t wait to see that piece– please do keep me posted on it!

      The reading hobby = awesome.

      The train hobby = not necessarily my thing, but if it makes him happy and it’s not monster or gun oriented, I’m happy.

      Happy Summer! xox

  8. Hahahaha. Ommmggggg. Rebecca, you are an amazing mom. And I totally remember the whole magnetic train problem with my little brothers. It IS confusing!!! Hahaha. πŸ˜‰ xoxo

    ~Kelly
    kellyinthecity.com

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