Avery's Surprise Tooth

Back in September, there was a period of two weeks when Avery would get so fussy and inconsolable every night that the only thing that would quiet her down was a walk outside. I figured she was teething at the time because she also had a little fever. As time went on, she stopped fussing and we got busy with moving, so I didn't think much about it.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving week. We had Nathan's brother Jason and his family here. While they were here, Ashley, my three year-old niece was playing with Avery and said, "Aunt Jelaire, Avery has a white thing in her mouth." "Ohhh, that's nice," I replied in that classic I'm-not-paying-attention-to-you-but-I'm-tricking-you-into-thinking-I-am voice. I had no clue what she was talking about. To me it was just three-year-old gibberish. Here's Ash doing the dishes at our place.


Later that night, Jasmin, my sister-in-law said, "Hey Jelaire, did you see that Avery has a tooth?" Here's Jaz and Avery!

A tooth? The first thought that crossed my mind was, "But she's still a BABY! She can't have a tooth yet!" I was shocked. I always imagined Avery's first tooth as one of those milestones that would be so obvious, I'd have to be blind to miss it. I went to check, and sure enough, her little tooth was sticking way up out of her little pink gums. My guess is that it had been there since that September fussiness stopped!

It made me kind of sad to realize that I had missed such an important moment. I know it's not a huge deal and she'll have plenty of other teeth, but it definitely made me stop and think about taking time to notice and savor the little things while she's young (we now lovingly call her "Savory Avery"). It was the first time I had felt that Avery was really growing up. Images of her with a full-toothed smile flashed in my head. That feeling I had made me want to try even more to never again let those little moments slip by.

Sometimes I get so caught up in things, when they could wait 5 minutes so we can have some good ol' Momma and Avery time. I was really grateful for this little "aha moment." Since then, I've had to consciously pry myself away (more than once) from the less important stuff to just have some good ol' uninterrupted Mom and Avery time. I love it and it has made me a little less stressed with life.

I now religiously check her mouth every day for more teeth. :) And to my surprise, she cut a new tooth on Wednesday night right next to her first one! Yay!

I included a picture of how she usually sleeps. It's so funny! She sucks her thumb and puts her other hand over her eye. She likes to have a little bit of the blanket in each hand, too!