Ouch! Teething hurts everyone.

More teeth! Cutie Pie thinks he is a dinosaur. His new favorite game is to screech, grab my neck in a bear hug and bite my shoulder as hard as he can.

It makes me so sad that he bites when he hugs me. I love hugging my baby boy. I don't love it when he sharpens his new chompers on my shoulder blade. Now, when he hugs me, I have to play defense. I can only relax when his mouth is already full.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to not scream and scare him to death. I have been passing out teething rings for so long now that I don't know where they are anymore. It doesn't matter anyway. He doesn't want to bite those boring, tasteless teething rings. He wants to bite Mommy. I've got black and blue spots on my shoulders as proof.

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Cutie Pie Bites

It's official, my child is a biter. Ever since he got his top teeth, he loves to bite everything he can put in his mouth. This includes Mommy's arms, face, fingers and just about anything he can get.

The mosquitos can get pretty bad in the summer so the other day, I was not surprised to find little red marks on my arm. I thought they were just mosquito bites but they didn't itch. They felt a little sore. Upon closer inspection, they were Cutie Pie Bites.

A few months ago, he started giving kisses. It was the sweetest thing when he'd wrap his little arms around my neck and put his open slobbery mouth on my cheek, covering my face with baby goo. When he gave me a kiss the other day, I thought nothing of it until "CHOMP!" his teeth closed in on my cheek.

He's still a little person and doesn't understand "No biting." His teacher at school told me to keep plenty of alternative teething rings nearby. She said that every time he bites someone, I should give him a teething toy to redirect his need to bite. Her instructions made perfect sense but have proven to be difficult to follow. When a child is biting you on the face and will not let go, you're just not thinking about where you left that darn teething ring. When you are trying to nurse your child to sleep and he bites you like he's sinking his teeth into a Big Mac, you don't care about any teething rings. When your arms are full of bags and you're trying to load up the car and you're worried about being late to an appointment and your little Vampire suddenly tries to suck the blood out of your arm, teething rings are the last thing you're going to think of. Just in case though, I've got an arsenal of teething rings hidden all over the house and the car.

I love my baby's new, shiny, little white teeth. I just wish Cutie Pie could keep them to himself.

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Doggone Cute

Uh Oh! Cutie Pie found the dog's bowls. He is a quick little crawler. He was playing quietly with his new stacking toy, so I snuck into the kitchen to get his breakfast ready. Next thing I knew, I heard splash, splash next to my feet. Cutie Pie was playing in the dog's water bowl. He must think I put a little baby pool in the house!

The dogs saw the whole thing and they were horrified! I quickly picked up the water and food and placed them on the counter where Cutie Pie couldn't reach. As I cleaned the dog water off Cutie Pie and the floor, the dogs barked at me like someone had stolen their food.

I'm sure they are thinking, "That rotten kid! First he moves in here and takes all the attention. Then he gets all these cool toys that we're not allowed to chew on. Now he's taking our food too!"

When I put the bowls back down for the dogs, they eyed their food suspiciously like Cutie Pie had ruined it or something. They quickly wolfed down a few bites, probably in case I took it away again. Then they went back to gazing forlornly at the baby.

A little later, I gave Cutie Pie one of those Earth's Best Teething Biscuits so he could chew on something other than my arm. If you've never seen one of these things, you should know they look just like a dog biscuit. When my dogs saw Cutie Pie holding and eating something that looked like a dog treat, they got angry all over again. One of them even tried to steal it from him. I let the other one play with one of Cutie Pie's toys just to keep him away.

I was getting worried that I was about to have a mutiny on my hands when Cutie Pie suddenly grew bored of gnawing and dropped the biscuit on the floor. The dogs quickly scooped it up and all was right with the world again. Cutie Pie was delighted to see the dogs run over to him. He laughed and gurgled, oblivious to the drama between him and the dogs. Cutie Pie loves his doggies and he is always willing to share with them.

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Baby's Got Bite

He's not even six months old and Cutie Pie is already wrestling alligators. Cutie Pie is a tough baby. About a month ago, he invented a game where he grabs your arm while you are doing your best to change his diaper and bites your elbow like a shark with his cute little gummy mouth. But, now that Cutie Pie is getting a tooth, I don't think I'll still have my "Aw, so cute" reaction.

Yep, you heard me. Cutie Pie is getting a tooth. It started poking through yesterday, leading to all sorts of unhappiness. Mr. Crankypants has moved in and taken over my usually mild-manned Cutie Pie. I feel so bad for him, but when he takes pictures this funny it's hard not to laugh.

Each time Cutie Pie reaches a childhood milestone, I am filled with pride but also fear. OK, mostly fear. So he's teething, now what? I think his gums are hurting. Does he need a teething ring? Is that the one I saw the dog pick up yesterday? Should I give him some of that Orajel stuff? Should you give babies that stuff before they eat? It says to give them a pea-sized amount but just how big is a pea? The gel didn't come out in pea form. How big is a smashed pea? What would happen if I gave him too much?

Now that he has a tooth, the books say that I'm supposed to brush it. I have a friend who had to take out a loan to cap her four year old's teeth so I am willing to do whatever I must do to insure Cutie Pie has good dental hygiene. I guess I'm going to be making another trip to the store this week to buy a toothbrush for a six month old. I can't get him to open his mouth to put teething medicine in there, what makes me think I'm going to get a toothbrush in his mouth? Maybe if I put sweet potatoes on the brush I can trick him into thinking I got him a new spoon. I think I read that you can wipe the baby's teeth with a cloth. What? He won't even let me wipe his nose!

The problem is that Cutie Pie is still a baby and falls asleep nursing. How am I going to brush his teeth after he eats if he falls asleep? The books say that brushing before bedtime is critical. Surely, Cutie Pie will have a mouth full of cavities if I let him fall asleep nursing. One book I read says he shouldn't nurse to fall asleep anymore, six months is too big for this babyish habit. Another book said that when he is weaned the bed time feeding should stop last. What am I supposed to do? Is there any way I can brush his teeth while he is sleeping? Perhaps I should let Cutie Pie gnaw on the books next time.

BTW- let me know if you can think of a better caption for the picture than "baby's got bite."

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