Teeth

My child has spent much of the past couple of weeks with four fingers crammed in his mouth.  I can only assume it's because of his teeth.  Some really sharp incisors breaking through gums, and a couple of molars at the same time.  Man, that's got to hurt.  He's such a good sport about it, though.  A little testy sometimes, but for the most part, he seems to shrug it off.  He's too busy learning and growing to be set back by a few teeth.  The other day he took an unprecedented three-hour nap, and when he woke up, it seemed as if he had grown and developed in his sleep.  He looked bigger and more boy-like, and he said a couple of new words right away.  He's working on "boot," "poop," and "more," in particular.  He doesn't seem to like to try new words until he's pretty confident he can say them correctly.  An interesting characteristic.  He has such distinctive moods these days... His contemplative mood, when he'll sit quietly with a task and entertain himself for half an hour.  Yesterday it was a bucket, a shovel, and some dirt in the garden, while I planted some beets.  His rowdy mood, when he wants to tear around the room laughing and play horsey with mama.  His exploratory mood, when he displays the typical toddler attention span of about two minutes.  They are all fun to witness.  We are definitely entering "terrible two" territory, but I don't like to label it that way.  I have to come up with a better one.  Maybe "testy twos."  Testy in two senses:  Testing and experimenting with everything, including power and boundaries.  And testy as in: I've got some really intense pain going on in my mouth and I can't control what you feed me and when and I don't get to make any of the decisions around here, and so I'm just a little testy sometimes, thank you very much.  It takes some really creative and responsive parenting to avoid conflict.  You have to be really quick on your feet.  And what a challenge it can be to not mirror your child's childish behavior.  I fail sometimes.  But I celebrate each success, big and small: a tearless tooth brushing, a smooth exit, a stimulating day, a long and restful nap.