Toofs

It is 2:28 AM. Do you know where your children are??

That would be an affirmative, yes, over and out from the Miller residence. Mine two eldest are sleeping all snug in their beds while visions of sugary doughnuts dance in their heads, while mine youngest has just completed a merry solo game of Whack A Mole and is now cheerfully playing with an empty container and my hairband. Kerchiefs and nightcaps notwithstanding, I am a yawning heap of tiredness that yearns to settle down for my long spring nap.

With nary a herald of snot, drool, or fever, my child is cutting his first tooth - the bottom left one. It seems to grow mainly in the dead of night. Two nights ago we rose and shone, the two of us, at 4 AM. Then we went back to bed and slept like logs, as I am hoping to do after a bit tonight once the Tylenol kicks in.

This would, unfortunately, have HAD to be the week that I have decided to cram my retainers back into my tooth-shifted mouth after wearing them only sporadically over the past 8 years. My plan had been to wear them during the night so I could sleep through the ridiculous discomfort I had caused myself. Hah. Instead I have enjoyed a good portion of my tooth rearrangement in all it's fairly miserable glory. Maybe I should take my own swig from that dropper of acetominophen.

It was just this evening, though, that I carted the warm little weight of this little dude down the hall in his soft stripey PJ's, as he laid his soft head in my neck and sucked his thumb sleepily, and I thought, oh, this babyness goes so fast. So fast. So tonight, we will smile at each other, and I will kiss some chubby cheeks, and squeeze some soft, chubby, squeezy-fold legs, and rub some soft smooth belly skin, and pat that little diapered bottom, and love the goodness of a little baby. And I'll get some sleep later. I hope.