Autumn’s teeth have poked through. We’ve been applying the Orajel liberally, something the girl is not too fond of. She makes a sour face and wipes her mouth on the back of her hand. That stuff is nasty, but it seems to help with the pain.
One of the side effects of the teething is the screaming. This is not just the bawling of an unhappy baby but the ear-bleeding screeches of a child testing out her lungs and it’s driving us nuts. Yesterday she let out a good one after I had just picked her up. Her pitch is amazing. Pretty soon only dogs will be able to hear her. Pretty soon I’ll not be able to hear anything.
Saturday Nathan and I visited our favorite sushi restaurant with Autumn in tow. It was the first time all three of us had been there since Autumn was just a few weeks old. Back then she was the size of a doll and was content to sleep through the whole meal. We just set her car seat on one of the chairs and I enjoyed my first taste of my favorite Crunchy Maki in almost a year.
This time, however, Autumn was a bouncing scream machine. We put her in a high chair and I proceeded to feed her some peas, but it was as though she was sitting on live wires. She bopped up and down, pounded on the table and happily screamed her little heart out. I tried to aim the peas towards her mouth, a task that should have been simple considering her mouth was constantly open, but the bouncing made feeding a hit-or-miss operation. After a few times of shoving peas up her nose and streaking them across her face like war paint, I put the spoon down and sighed. “This is like being drunk and trying to stick a key in a keyhole,” I said to Nathan.
Autumn had almost finished the whole package of peas when she decided they needed to come back up. The bouncing must have upset her stomach. I was very composed and held the bib under her chin to catch the peas as they fell out of her mouth. I was even composed as she coughed and spit peas all over my arm and the table. I remained composed as I pulled a plastic bag out of my purse and put the soiled bib in it. I only freaked out later when we were in the grocery store and I found peas on her little sandals. “What the hell? How did she get peas all the way down there?” I asked whoever was in earshot.
I really felt sorry for the other diners in the restaurant. Wasabi doesn’t look as appetizing once you’ve witnessed an infant puke up peas at the next table. We tried to stem Autumn’s screaming by keeping the binky in her mouth, but she has hands and knows how to use them now. She’d pull the binky out as soon as it was inserted. After awhile we just gave up and tried to eat as quickly as possible.
That incident was pretty much on par with the remainder of the weekend. She screamed, she ate, she slept. I finally had to leave the house. I told Nathan I was going to Target and wouldn’t be long. As I walked through the store I suddenly felt exhausted. I knew I eventually had to go home to feed Autumn before she went to bed but wanted to stay just a little while longer. It was just so nice and quiet at Target.
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