Teething Troubles

How many times have I used that phrase around the office? Sitting in a grey-walled meeting room, framed newspaper clippings and tech-vendor awards on the walls, explaining the readiness of a technically complex new product to the project manager:

"the platform will meet the product requirements, will be scalable and redundant, and will be well-documented for acceptance testing and operational handover in time for the planned launch date. However, we must expect some teething troubles shortly after launch"

That kind of teething trouble is only metaphorically teething trouble. And oh, is there a difference between the metaphorical and the real....

It isn't the sit-there-inexplicably-whinging type of teething trouble. It isn't the I-used-to-sleep-well-but-now-I-don't type either. And it certainly isn't the wake-up-at-1:30am-and-then-again-at-3:30am-crying kind of teething trouble.

I'll take teething troubles in the business sense over the teething troubles in the literal sense any day of the week!

Our poor little Dalai Levi has a literal case of teething troubles at the moment. Took us a little while to work it out, but once we saw what the problem was it all became clear. It does come and go a bit, but mainly it comes and stays. We were given a fantastic little feeding thing called a mesh feeder - it's like a little netting bag with a big plastic ring on the end of it. Stuff a couple of chunks of cold watermelon into the bag and give it to Levi and he'll grab the ring, unceremoniously put the netting bag into his mouth, and chomp down on the cold, sweet, juicy fruit. It's working like a treat at the moment, even if watermelon juice does make a bit of a mess....

He's just turned 6 months old, and has simultaneously kicked off with both a bunch of new skills and a bunch of new problems. First, the new skills:
* can sit up very well on his own, and often just sits there laughing to himself
* can do press ups, and can kind of move backwards slowly along the floor by doing multiple push ups in a row (hasn't yet got the hang of one-handed pushups like his daddy, and, um, jean-claude van damme.....)
* can stand up with something to hold on to (and amusingly is gripped with then looking down at the floor from a standing position - the look of wonder on his face is hilarious!)
* can pass stuff from one hand to the other, bang things against other things, throw things around. And he's an expert at raking anything within arm's reach closer, so that he can get it into his mouth :)
* can eat mushed up solid foods - and that's a big new skill. He loves to grab hold of the spoon himself and stuff it into his mouth, but often the little monkey grabs it around the handle with one hand, and then once he has control of the spoon, runs his fingers carefully through the food on the other end. He'll then do something very clever, like rub his eyes, pull on his ears, slap his hands on the traytable - any way to get that food everywhere :) Quick fix suggestion from mum - use two spoons! Let him control one of them, while we use the other to actually feed him - brilliant :)

(I've been amusing myself, and my wife, by making up names for the food - for instance, a mixture of pumpkin and apple becomes: pumple - or apkin. A mixture of avocado and banana becomes: avonana. The hilarity just goes on and on.....)

some new problems:
* sometimes, he just really wants his mummy. Not his daddy, just his mummy. I don't blame him, after all she's very nice, and can sing in a soft high-pitched voice, whereas his daddy is usually unshaven, a bit smelly, and there's no milk in his boobs. But sometimes it's actually daddy's turn.
* sometimes, his teeth are hurting enough that he can't get to sleep. Nothing unusual there, I guess, but he's been *such* a good sleeper up until now.
* along with feeding The Boy solids, which is a pleasure, comes at least two new problems. The lesser of the two is ensuring there are enough clean bibs and flannels around the place - after 6 months of using cloth nappies, we can handle a bit of laundry. The bigger problem is that his poohs have, well, become more like *real* poohs. Oh yes, they no longer smell of roses - they smell like shit :)

I've posted an album of photos of Levi at 6 months old on Facebook - non-facebook users can see it by clicking here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30380&l=b54c5&id=699605134