Two Milestones

Today we had two important firsts in Nora's life. One good and one bad. Let's look at them in the order that they occurred.

Nora's been putting anything and everything she can into her mouth lately. When she grabs your hand or, if you get close enough, your nose, she's going to close her fingers around it and pull it towards her mouth. Several times I've been holding her and thinking about something else and found that she was biting down with her firm gums on my finger...hard! We've been monitoring several white teeth just under the surface of her gums for over a month now.

Milestone 1

Just today, when her Aunt Belén was visiting, her aunt discovered that a tooth had broken through into the daylight. It's not much yet, but we were ecstatic at the news.

It's really hard to examine her lower gums because as soon as you touch her lips or even her chin, out comes Mr. Tongue to investigate the action. This photograph was not easy to take.

by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Close-up. See the little white protrusion? You can feel it better than you can see it.

Milestone 2

This evening, when Marga went upstairs to take a shower, she left Nora lying on the bed in my office. All offices should have beds. I put her as close to the wall (far from the edge) as I could and swiveled around to write an email. About a minute later, I heard a heart-wrenching THUMP!

It took me about 0.4 seconds to spin around and scoop her up off the rug (at least it wasn't the hardwood floor!) and into my arms, where she promptly started crying in absolute terror. A quick examination revealed that any sustained damage was entirely emotional, and some forensic analysis of the way she had been on the bed and the way I found her on the floor told me that her legs and diaper-padded rear end had taken all the force of the 50 cm (19") fall. It was feeding time anyway, and within one absolutely horrible minute, she was silently sucking on her bottle. By the time she finished it, she was happy and cooing again, despite her parents' somber faces.

My logical mind tells me that an accidents like this are inevitable and just part of what it is to be a parent, and I know that I'm lucky that it was so harmless. But that doesn't stop me from feeling like the worst parent ever when I replay those minutes in my mind.

Love is a roller coaster.