Caleb 15.5 Months

So I think I got a little spoiled. I had the worlds best behaved baby for so long that it was a shock when he started walking and suddenly decided he had an opinion about things. I learned then to be grateful that for the most part Caleb was still a very mellow, even tempered easy going baby because when he decided not to be... you would sooner talk water in to rolling up hill than get that child to do something he didn't want to do.

But I would still get compliments and questions from strangers who spent any amount of time with him. The questions were almost invariably "Is he always this good??" and the compliments were something to the tune of "Wow. He was SO good!"

So you can see why I consider myself insanely lucky to be the mother of the worlds best baby. But I have to admit the last 2 weeks have been a serious challenge. Caleb is working on a couple of teeth at a time now and it has made him extremely less than happy about things.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly he can alternate from being completely and totally charming to be absolutely horrible. One minute he's happy and laughing and playing and the next some mysterious force will shift and he's suddenly screaming his little head off and thats nothing you can do to soothe him. It becomes extremely frustrating extremely quickly to be screamed at for no good reason.

But on the other hand I've had some sweet experiences of late. When we were with my folks a few weeks back my Dad was working hard on getting Caleb to say 'I love you'. He got as far as (repeated one word at a time) "Ah.... of..... Oooh!" It was really dang cute. So the other day I was sitting there with Caleb on my lap practicing this and we got as far as "Ah.... of" and while I was praising him for the "love/of" bit Caleb all on his own finished with "Momma!" and hugged me.

I almost cried I was so happy. We had a good cuddle with Mommy repeatedly telling him that he was the absolute bestest baby in the whole world and I'd definitely keep him. :)

And for another kudos to me - for MONTHS Caleb's favorite word was "Dada!" and he would say it over and over and over again. And you'd have me sitting there going "Say Momma! Say Momma! Mooooommma!"  (And he could he'd done it before but almost never when I was IN the room). And Caleb would just look up and me and smile and go "Dada!" And I'd tell him he was a good boy if a rotten snot. And Adam would laugh and tell him he was a good boy.

Well, now he's decided the favorite word is "Momma!" which I am 110% okay with. And the other day I overheard Adam sitting with Caleb going "Say Dada! Dada!" and Caleb smirked at him and happily said "Momma!" I called out "Good boy!"

I tell you, most of the time I do have the bestest baby in the whole world.

We did find (a pharmacy tech recommended them and a couple of friends) some homeopathic little tablets that like melt instantly in his mouth called "Teething Tablets" that do seem to be helping some with the extreme teething crabbiness. I'm glad b/c these are like microdoses of herbs and claim to be completely harmless (hasn't killed any of my friends kids anyways) and I was feeling bad dosing the poor kid with tylenol every 4 hours when he was awake just so I wouldn't kill him b/c that tylenol is really hard on your liver.

This too shall pass. I think I'm really grateful I'm not pregnant right now because it would be even harder to keep from losing my temper if I was hormonal pregnant psycho chick. Its particularly hard because he is so big and he weighs so much, and when he's upset he like wants to climb up you like you're a jungle gym or something and those hard boney little toes digging into your stomach and thighs really fricking hurt. Add that to the screaming in your ear and life becomes dramatically unpleasant.

I guess the biggest things are the fear that something else is wrong and that I can't make it better either way. I'd take him into the doctor but he was worse last week and we did see the doc for his check up and everything was perfect. He doesn't have a fever or any other symptoms just new toofies and CRABBINESS. And I've tried everything but giving the kid whiskey (which a shockingly large number of people have suggested I do) and nothing has made him happy.

Oh well. As my friend Ruth reminded me today: This too shall pass.

PS - I'll post more pictures soon. Its just hard with my wonky camera....