Holding Hands: a photo moment

Every once in a while, my toddler's behaviour vis-a-vis her little sister pleasantly surprises me. The spontaneous declarations of affection ("I love you") and the little kisses are now more frequent than the slaps and kicks.

On the rare occasion that her sister is crying, she attempts to cheer her up by singing to her. Her really loud rendition of Twinkle Twinkle does not always work, but the effort is heart warming.

Just the other day, we were driving home from pre-school, and her baby sister started to cry. She reached over, said "hold my hand", and the baby instantly stopped crying. I looked back at a red light a few minutes later, and saw the sweetest hand-holding!

Three Little Babies

As she had done so every summer since moving to Dubai, my cousin was planning on visiting Montreal this summer. A few months ago, she mentioned that she had picked out three identical outfits in Dubai, and mentioned that "they would look so cute, we should do a photo shoot". By they, she was referring to our babies. Both her older sister and her have babies very close in age to Baby #2.

My cousin was planning on taking photos with her smart-phone. I was not aware, and thought she had a professional shoot in mind...As it happened, one day in May, I heard about a great deal for a professional photo shoot, and booked it.

The photographer and her assistant worked hard to try to get as many shots as possible, with all three babies in similar positions, and not crying. Not an easy task with three babies under 6 months of age. The studio was hoping that we would choose more than one pose, and order multiple photos, and not just the one pose included in the deal. My cousins and I unanimously agreed that there was really only one pose where all three babies had behaved. Here it is: (my baby is the least hirsute)

Baby Teeth

Wearing Summer Dresses

Just the other day, I was thinking about how benign-sounding the term baby teeth is. It almost sounds adorable. In fact, I find the term to be quite deceiving ...

Our toddler sprouted her first teeth at 6 months of age, but started teething by 3 months old. And as evidenced by her swollen gums and hyper-salivation, our second daughter has already begun the teething process. Unfortunately her symptoms have been accompanied by irritability and difficult feedings.  So much so that I have been tempted, on a few occasions this week, to introduce to her the dreaded pacifier. Up until now, she had been such a calm baby.

 I have offered our baby a number of different teething devices, both chilled and room-temperature, but to no avail. I also offered her a clean finger, which she briefly sucked on. In the end, after fussing and crying (actually wailing is perhaps a better description) for a few minutes, she nurses herself to sleep. This has occurred several times a day, every day, for the last week. As with her sister, this will likely be a long, drawn-out process. Our only reprieve will come when those first teeth make their appearance, and before the next set of teeth (as they do seem to come in pairs).

Coincidentally, our toddler is also currently teething. She too, is hyper-salivating. So much so that I have been changing her saliva-soaked shirts several times a day. She seems to be aware that something is going on with her teeth and she often sticks her fingers in her mouth on opposite sides, as if to massage her swollen gums. Thankfully her primary teeth are almost all in. Because the only thing worse than one irritable child is two!