Monitoring the Bea-Hand-Foot-To-Mouth Action

Argh. The week got away and my grand aspirations of posting a variety of posts were usurped by work and then sucked into my baby’s mouth.

Why? Because Bea’s at that oral exploration stage where everything she get’s her hands on – including her own fists and feet – go into her mouth.

When Bea is happy – mouth opens wide – fists fly into the mouth. And when Bea wants to learn about a new object – and everything is new to a baby – she puts it in her mouth. We have dozens of drool rags around the house for these moments.

No teeth have broken the gum line yet, but we know that’s coming soon now that she’s on her way to 7 months next week.

Ah, from the mouths of babes…and into the mouths of babes...

So a little levity on Fatherhood Friday is in order after a busy week. The hip cats at FF at least get me motivated to share some fatherhood fun!

Here’s a list of items we don’t allow within the vicinity Bea-hand-foot-to-mouth action:

• Very small toys she could choke on
• Toys with removable or breakable parts she could choke on
• Toys we haven’t boiled in a pot of water yet
• Toys with lead content (which we bought a kit to check for this)
• Peeling paint (which thankfully we don’t have)
• Push pins
• Writing pens
• Power tools
• Spackle
• Motor oil
• Vegetable oil
• Household cleaners
• Other people’s feet
• Fresh diapers
• Not-so-fresh diapers
• Letter openers
• Scalpels
• Japanese throwing stars
• Chinese throwing stars
• Indian arrowheads
• Chicken bones
• 300-year-old cats (ours is named Chelsea)
• Remote controls (keep yelling at Mama about this one)
• The California state legislature
• Toxic bank assets
• The seceding of Texas
• And lastly Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter (remember, hydrochloric acid burns)

Have a great weekend and be safe with the little ones!

Baby B and burp rags – so out it rolls

One of staff at work bought us the sweetest burp rag that reads:

I coo.

I poo.

That's all I do.

Used to think that's all I did until I met my little Baby B. What an amazing creature she is. I've already worked through the whole sugar-and-spice myth, but now there is drool everywhere. I mean everywhere.

There's an old SNL skit with Michael Palin hosting that tells "the horrible, disgusting, tragic story of poor Miles Cowperthwaite who had the nerve-wracking job of emptying drool buckets from an epileptic."

One of those comedy bits that stays with you. Of course, baby drool doesn't really fill up drool buckets, just soaks a burp rag or three. According to Drool 101 at Parenting.com, "Some babies just don't know what to do with their spit, so out it rolls."

Wow. Words from an M.D. So out it rolls.

I kept asking Mama A if maybe Bea's teething early, but that usually doesn't happen until six months and beyond.

Christmas drool for everyone! I'll have mine with a little brandy, please.