Que?

So, it's either us, or the Dr., but someone's an amateur as far as I'm concerned.

After the cumulative hell that was last week, it seems we may have to face the fact that it might have been all about nothing.

Monday night, after a super day at daycare, Zoe was horsing around with her daddy while I was doing the dinner dishes. We can pretty reliably get some really great and goofy giggles out of bug by flipping her upside down and kissing her tummy. It's also a great way to catch a glimpse into her usually tight-as-a-clam-shut mouth.

Dave flipped her and found a new tooth. A premolar, nonetheless.

Yay!

Except as soon as he found and announced its presence, we both came to the realization: DUH. Teething. A typical cause of, oh, FEVER, fussiness, loss of appetite, poor sleep.

So why, oh why didn't we think of it last week? Why didn't the pediatrician take a look in her mouth and see that HUGE new tooth tearing through Zoe's poor, sore gums and save us the trip to Children's Hospital to rule out a big, bad, terrible illness????

Well I guess to start, we didn't catch on to Zoe's chompiness - this was a new kind of tooth, after all. That and we really figured we'd see her next two bottom teeth before we saw anything more up top. Still, we couldn't help but to feel a bit miffed and foolish. Amateurs.

Whatever. We've moved on beyond last week. Zoe's way back into her game, eating, sleeping and playing as well as ever. I had a very happy Wednesday at home with her today. So, I'm still thankful that it wasn't the big bad terrible illness and that it was a virus and a viciously quick bout of teething running their respective courses. On to the next thing...Zo's already showing signs that the other premolar is coming soon. At least we're on to her this time!

In other Zoe news, we've been seeing lots of fun developments over the past couple of weeks - in her personality, communications and mobility. For instance, we happily declare 'Ki-y' (kitty) to be her first official 'see and say' word. The animal lover in me is rejoicing! She also says, 'milh' (milk), usually with prompting, but lately more on her own. I think I also heard 'chees' (cheese) in her highchair this week. And we've heard a few 'nk-q's (thank yous), too! Usually after we say it, but she says it! Along with that, she's getting awfully good (great, actually) about handing off her cup when she's done with it. Yahoo! But should we miss the hand-off, there's sure to be an 'uh-ah' (uh-oh) exclaimed after its fall to the floor.

Oh, and I think bug's getting in touch with her Hispanic roots. In her endless explorations, she does lots of pointing at things and will inevitably say 'k?'...Que? I think she's already mastered her first Spanish word!! ;)

Zoe's also showing some maturity in her drinking choices. No, she's not sipping off mom's wine glass, but she does choose to sip off mom's water glass. Any time she lays eyes on it! Very cute. We've tried to deter her by taking the 'sippy' off her cup, but she's no fool and insists on the big girl glass. So yes, we've gotten used to drinking cloudy water, thanks to Zo's backwash, but it's very fun seeing her maneuver her head and mouth to just the right angles to get a big gulp. Love it.

We're also making strides on the walking front. Just today I had my first experience leading her through a room holding only one of her hands!! In the past couple of weeks, Zoe has gone from literally crumpling at her knees when we picked her up to lead her on a stroll to not only letting us lead her, but venturing forth a bit on her own. We've caught her assessing what it takes to get from point A to point B when the distance between isn't covered by anything scalable above the floor. She'll eventually opt for the knees, but just the fact that she's thinking about it is huge.

And finally, Zoe's been gaining a deeper perspective of self. Just the other day I was stretching on the floor after a run and Zoe came crawling up to me - to laugh at my being on the floor of course. I was reaching for my toes and said "Zoe's toes!" What'd she do? She plunked down on her bum, sprawled her feet in front of herself and pointed to her toes! What a hoot! That was one of the best workouts I've had in a while ;)

Some cute pix and a vid of our bug of lately:


Learning about in and out, over and under, in front and behind




Learning about up and down:


Bug attack