Edie is teething

So one of Edie's top teeth have finally broke through and she has made sure everyone in the house knows it. Thankfully a little bit of Tylenol and teething gel has giving her some relief. And poor Gabe has become her teething ring. He loves to lay on her when they first wake up, his head in her lap, while she plays with his hair. But today instead of a loving exchange he got bite marks across the back of his neck. He wasn't impressed!

During Edie's turn towards whininess Gabe has become his old self again. It's been a a few days now since I saw the mean little tantrumer he had become, so I'm hoping hes beginning to adjust to his new understanding of the world. I have been doing my best to let him make decision in order to prevent his daily meltdowns. I think I just wasn't giving him options. Now instead of telling him to do something I get him to help me. So if we are leaving the house he can decide what shoes he'll wear, and whether or not he rides in the stroller, etc etc. This has cut back on the tantrums exponentially. The other secret tantrum preventer I have discovered is the hand puppet! If he cant or wont tell mom or dad what the matter is, he'll confide it in the hand puppet and the hand puppet can talk and reason with him if hes not allowed to have something. It's amazing. It's a miracle tantrum cure for him. And every night I give the kids a little puppet show full of their favourite songs and end the set with "there's a hole in my bucket" where me and "baa baa" (its a cow puppet but Gabe thinks its a sheep so he's named it Baa baa) sing a duet! There's always an encore since the kids are enthralled and by the time bedtime hits it's a lot less of a fight.

I'm glad I have discovered some tools to help Gabe express himself and by the time my birthday rolls around (and he's gestationally 2 years old) we will decide whether we should get him in for a speech assessment. So far I think he might need a little bit of help with it, but I guess that's what the experts will tell us. Hopefully he wont need a full intervention and maybe just a few exercises to help him out, but Scott and I will do whatever it takes to get him caught up. I know it must be frustrating not being able to communicate so the sooner he can get some help, the better!