The fifth tooth

While charting the slow unsteady progress of the mound on the lower right, a tooth popped out on the upper left. I swear, yesterday there wasn't so much as a bump and today -- voila! -- a tooth. I knew from the sudden appearance of drool globs that she was teething, and from her sudden clamping down that a tooth was eminent, I just guessed the wrong one.

On related teething news, yesterday Yelena demonstrated some cognitive powers. (Houston, we have cognition.) In the afternoon she had clamped down while nursing, a big no no around here. (Not so into the nipple pain. Why anyone would pierce them is beyond my imaginative masochism threshold.) When this happens I deny her privilege. I said to her, "Yelena, if you want to bite, bite Bear," and handed her the bear that shares sleeptime with her. So she gnawed on him a little and returned to me with a very wide open mouth. Last night we were nursing and she suddenly released my breast, reached to her other side, yanked Bear around, shoved his paw in her mouth and chewed away for a minute before turning back to me to gently nurse.

Now if I can only get her to understand the word, "In."