Senia Mae’s new cute “thing” is scurrying around the house picking up random shoes and carrying them throughout our home spouting “shoes” in the most delicate, sweet angelic voice you ever heard. As the words come out of her mouth her pitch raises into a slight question, “shoes?”, although she is well aware that she is indeed correct. She gets a marvelous reaction out of us, enthralled with the fact that she is becoming a little person, steeping her with oohs and aahs commenting about how smart she is. This is, of course, why she continues to repeat this adorable behavior. Everybody likes a good positive reaction, right?

In the meantime Senia Mae is still cutting teeth. We’ll go through six months of no tooth activity and then suddenly they all want to fiercely appear all at once. This week three incisors are bursting through her tender, swollen gums, causing almost constant discomfort for the poor little tyke. Yesterday we were being cuddly on the couch, enjoying each other after I came home from work. As I laid my cheek on her soft, snuggly face I got caught up in the moment, relishing in the feeling of absolute lovingness that I know is only available to me for a limited time, since independence marches in so quickly and steals those moments away. My heart was filled with that exuberant, abundant love that you can only feel for your child as I suddenly became aware of an intense, sharp, shooting pain in my left breast. I let out a high pitched, tremendously painful scream, realizing that in her own excitement, she bit me! I responded with an exaggerated pout and pretend onset of tears, scolding her with “Oww, you hurt Mommy”, as I caressed the wounded area of my body.