Shut up! We have a TOOF!

Well, I can't believe it, but my baby has his first tooth. I was loathe to label that tiny white speck a "tooth" at first, b/c my children have tricked me this way before. Each of my three children has started drooling ridiculously by around 4 mos, always triggering that anticipation -- "Oooh! I think a tooth is coming!" Then you start nosing around in their mouths, searching, "Do I feel one? I think I do! I swear there is one coming!" Both Jack and Kate have laughed in my face this way. Jack drooled like a bulldog from 4 mos, but then didn't give me that elusive first tooth until 8 mos. Kate was even worse -- not only did she drool, but you could SEE those damn teef coming up there through the gums FOREVER, and yet the first one did not protrude from her little gums until -- ridiculously -- 11 mos. So I've been down this road before, and I was NOT to be fooled. I wasn't going to do the whole "I know there is a tooth coming" game, and then spend the next 6 months going "Ahem. Cough. Oops! Nope, not yet." Until last night.

Charlie is, I must say, the most perfect baby. And I'm not just saying that as a mother -- that is my complete, non-prejudiced opinion. And I had the same opinion about Jack AND Kate, so I DO think I'm an expert in this area -- that of judging the perfection of my own children. Ahem. Anyway, aside from the general fussiness surrounding the diagnosis, correct treatment, and occasional forgetfulness of medicating associated with his acid reflux, Charlie is quite the charmer. Almost always smiling, cooing, and generally flirting. The past two nights, however, he's been fussing a lot, and waking up at night to play the binkie game. I wasn't TOO surprised, since we still haven't gotten this whole "sleeping through the night" game down pat. But really, on Sunday night I actually had to give him a bottle at 3 am. And for anyone who knows me, I am a complete bottle-nazi after 4 mos. There are NO NIGHTTIME BOTTLES. But he just would not be soothed with the binkie, and Mommy needed some sleep, so I gave in. Then last night I'm nosing around in that mouth of his, since he was continually putting his whole entire fist in there, and I saw it. That tiny little white speck of porcelain. My baby has a toof. A TOOF!

Can you see it?

And it was there again this morning -- bigger this time. It's for real, people. It's a tooth. A TOOF! This is a milestone to say the least. So far he has broken the Finkelman record of refusing to give up a tooth before switching to finger foods. Kate, I must say, was on finger foods -- chicken nuggets, even -- by 7 mos, after refusing to even touch the pureed foods I lovingly MADE for that [ungrateful wretch of a] ahem, perfect baby. And at this point, I'm already OVER that first mom horror of giving your child non-pureed foods before the teeth come. (Remember that? "How can I give him a Cheerio -- he has no TEETH!" Ahhh...the days before I knew how well gums are adapted to eating everything short of a carrot or t-bone steak...) So now, those precious days of babyhood for my last, perfect, baby are slipping by. My last baby has a TOOF. College to follow. Sob...

Big Changes Coming Up!

Well, we knew it was coming. Thankfully, we had thought through the possibilities over and over, and while we weren't directly prepared, we knew our lives as we knew them wouldn't end if it happened. But it did. I got laid off.

I have to giggle, b/c I think that a more pleasant "lay off" probably never happened at Marshfield before this. Chris and Elise came into my office, kind of hemmed and hawed for a minute, and I said to them "You don't need me anymore, do you?" Yep. Knew it was coming. Andrew and I had this conversation before. Me: "What they haven't yet realized, is that they just don't need in-house counsel. They would be find using outside counsel." Andrew: "Well don't tell THEM that!" Me: "I know, but we should be prepared for the day they realize it on their own."

And that day came. Honestly, I laughed with them both, and told them not to worry. I knew that they didn't need me, and I was prepared for the conversation. Andrew and I were starting to realize that daycare expenses for three kids were becoming cost-prohibitive anyway, and we were trying to see what other options we had. The decision was made for me, though, and I'm SO RELIEVED!!

So what lies ahead? Well, I am going to stay home for awhile, and at least get a chance to enjoy my youngest (last!) baby while I can. And I'm BE. SIDE. myself about that. I have to get the other two into preschool in the meantime, and it will mean a LOT of changes in the Finkelman house. But I think these changes will be GOOD. This will give me a chance to get my brain out of the law for awhile -- a place where I had become unhappy anyway, and was dying -- DYING to leave. I just don't have the heart for it anymore -- I want to be with my kids while I can. I am hoping to find something to do from home, so that I can at least generate SOME income to help with household expenses. And in the meantime, I'm hanging up my law degree and picking up my apron. And some Xanax... ;-)