Cutting Teeth

Oh, hello. This is a blog. Blogs consist of posts. Frequent posts. Yea. Soooo... I dont even know where we left off. Benji was probably busy being a baby doing baby stuff like drooling and gooing, Gus and Walter were controlling the varmint population, and matt was busy being absent whenever spiders invaded our home. Not much has changed I guess except I don't have a baby anymore~ I have a KID. Kids are great don't get me wrong but it definitely makes me sad to think our baby days are going fast. In the past month or so, Banjo has been cruising all over the place. At first I did not encourage it like I did when he started crawling (that awkward moment when you set your immobile baby down to go pee and the next thing you know a head pops around the corner). I quickly learned that mobility would come sooner or later and the less freedom they have, the more freedom you have. Anyway, I tried not to encourage it but every day, that darn kid gets braver and braver. I would say he basically is walking (he's spanned entire rooms) his only setback is he hasn't figured out standing up without using furniture, your leg, or some other solid to get himself upright. I'll give it a week.

Other kid-like features Benji has acquired are thicker, longer hair (which I fear is becoming a mullet - still with a receding hairline) and a bunch of teeth. The hair can look really cute some days but other days he looks like W.T. with the pointy pieces that go over his ears. I tried to trim them myself once but they're back and I'm afraid he won't do so hot at the salon. Also, his big bday is coming up and no one wants that "i just got my ears lowered" look going on for that. I need him to pass out so I can trim his hair and cut his dang nails. This kid claws his face up in his sleep what seems like every other week. (Speaking of claws, he was at a pre-op consult for getting a birthmark removed from his head and the nurse asked, 'oh is that what he is getting removed?' and pointed to his forehead. Um, no. Those are scratches. He made those himself. In the same day Matt was told he had a cute little girl. Must have been the mullet.)

Anyway....as for the teeth, I knew he had a top one coming in but for a few weeks he wouldn't let me look in there. He did this funny smile making his lip cover his top gum and his tongue would block it so I had no clue what was going on.

 

Sneaky Teeth Smile

Finally I got in there and saw he had cut a BUNCH of teeth! The 2 front ones and the 2 next to them are in the the next two are on the brink of cutting. Now that he has some relief from them actually cutting through, we get smiles like this...

For those of you less familiar with babies, 'cutting teeth' is the term for teeth poking through gums. There is no actual cutting involved.

This looks like an actual cutting but its just beets. Benji decided that being a kid involved feeding himself and as a result, we have not eaten beets in a while. We like to stick with cauliflower, turnips, parsnips...(people, these are all white).

Look Mom, no hands!

He's been keeping it clean in the nutrition department and I wanted to save tasting crap (delicious crap) for his first birthday cake. Unfortunately daycare asked if he could participate in chocolate pudding art and I can't make him the freak in the group already. They said they'd give him his binky for the activity but it turns out, he has hands and can yank that out. I guess if I don't see it, it never happened, right?

Since we're on the graphic topic of cutting, FrankenBenji, as Matt so graciously named him, had surgery. He was born with a rare birthmark on his scalp that the doctor wanted to biopsy and since he was going to have to cut him anyway, he thought it best to remove the whole thing.

We went from this...

 

to this.....

 with a little of this in the middle...

The procedure was an outpatient surgery and was really not a huge deal. It was definitely scary having him put under though and I cried when they took him away. Talk about feeling helpless! The surgeon was done in about 20 minutes and within 4 hours of the ordeal, Benji was at home playing and walking around. He never even cried that day! The pathology reports showed exactly what the doctors predicted and we are good to go. "Scars are cool," says Banjo's dad with permanent dog bite marks on his cheeks.

My final cutting story is another gold star in parenting. Benji's mobility as I've mentioned is sort of pain in the rear, especially when I'm trying to get ready for work and he is all over the place. He has figured out how to open and close the shower door (which he particularly enjoys when someone is in the shower) and I usually let him have at it so I can get ready. It usually works out because the shower is directly across from the mirror so I can watch him without turning around. Well, about a week ago, Benji moved from opening and closing the door, to crawling in and out of the shower. Great right? Showers are clean (except I texted my brother a picture of Benji sitting on the shower floor and his response was that the shower floor was disgusting... coming from a 24 year-old male, that's not great). Anyway Benji is in and out, opening and closing and I'm getting a lot done when suddenly I realize he has something in his mouth. My razor. Blade end in. Brand new as of 2 days before. I cringed. The thought of my tongue and cheeks and gums getting razored was almost too much to think straight. I had to calmly approach him and pry it out without leading him to make any sudden moves. Luckily I got it out and his little mouth escaped unscathed. I however, was not so lucky as the thought of gumming and sucking on a razor is burned in my mind. Aside from the blades is the thought of little hairs. Nasty. My child has now eaten a milk bone AND a razor. What's next? small change???

That's all I have for cuts except please excuse the chunk of time I cut out blog posting. I've said it before, but I'm trying to do better. I'm going to blame it on the kid. You can't be mad at his cute little face for taking up my time!

PS- It should also be noted that Benji loves to CUT a rug.