BooYah!! Baby gets her fangs!

[necron2.0]

My little girl has been teething for several months. Today we noticed that her canines look as though they're ready to come in. If it keeps up, her fangs will break surface tomorrow ... on HALLOWEEN, no less!!

<*sniffle*> I'm so proud I could cry blood.
.
.
.

[Wild Boar]

Wow, your little girl is ahead of mine. My little one just got her baby molars (all 4 within a week's time). No eye teeth, yet.

Remember, these little ones are only a week or two apart in age.

On a different note, my little girl learned a new sign language word. Click here. (http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/b/bowelmovement.htm)

[necron2.0]

As my wife has noted with some dismay, our little girl is way ahead of the curve in every way that involves food and eating. She's got 10 teeth (not including the canines - I think those are coming in out of sequence). She's completely on solid food, can feed herself with her fingers, and is beginning to be able to feed herself with a spoon. She can drink from a straw, drink from a sippy cup completely unaided and can drink from a regular cup with help (she hasn't quite got the concept of gravity down yet, where liquids are concerned).

We were thinking about teaching her sign language, but just never had the time. Even so, she has the concept of pointing, head shaking and using the hand to indicate "no." When we're eating (again with the food), and she wants something that is not already in front of her, she'll point. We'll hold up whatever we think it is she's pointing at. If its the right thing, she'll lean forward and open her mouth. If it is not what she wanted, she'll wrinkle her face, shake her head, and hold out her hand in the "stop" gesture. It's really quite cute, and I will confess that we've sometimes intentionally cycled through things we know she doesn't want just to watch her reaction.

[Wild Boar]

I was wondering if your girl got her teeth in "out of order". Are you certain you didn't *will* her fangs in?

Sign has been fun. If you have another kid I highly recommend it. It isn't a matter of time or effort, just consistency. Eventhough our girl knows about 25 signs, she only uses about 10 of them regularly and also resorts to the pointing and grunting that your daughter uses.

Her favorites are: more, cheese, doggy, kitty, milk, all done, pacifier, poop, brush teeth, bath, bear and book.

Her sometime signs: sleep, ball, elephant, tree, airplane, swing, slide, mommy, daddy (both of which look a lot like kitty), drink and water. There are a few others but they're even more rare.

How's your little one doing on talking and understanding what you're saying?

[necron2.0]

How's your little one doing on talking and understanding what you're saying?

She can say and understands:


Ma-Ma
Da-Da
Duck
Dog
Baby
Uh-oh
Oh, well
Please (it comes out "Peas")
Thank you (it comes out "T-Q")
Hush
Attica


Her understanding of that last one is, "The gate's closed and I want to be on the other side of it." Mommy taught her that.

She may know more, but that's as much as I'm certain of. Unfortunately I'm not with her as much during the day as I'd like.

[Wild Boar]

That's impressive. Ours is still resisting speaking. She understands some very complicated requests, but just doesn't want to talk.

[necron2.0]

Well, I was a bit premature, I'm afraid. Her canines didn't quite come in. The nubs are there, but they've resisted breaking the surface. I'm sure they'll be in place in time for the Thanksgiving turkey, though.

As for where she is and how she's progressing, I'm more interested that she's happy. My wife has a friend whose baby was crawling before ours, walking before ours, talking before ours, etc. My attitude is that life is long, and it's not a race. She'll get where she needs to be when she's ready to get there, and pushing her to meet somebody else's goals will just make the journey unnecessarily stressful. While I don't think she will, if she needs to be held back a grade or two, that's also fine with me. Again, time-tables are for trains.

I say this because my folks started me in school almost a year too soon. I was always younger and smaller than everybody else. Intellectually, I was on par or smarter than my peers, however I was more immature than my classmates, emotionally and especially physically. That made me the perpetual odd-man-out.

My parents didn't push me, per se, but I'm somewhat competitive, so I pushed myself to keep up with everybody, including my much older brothers, and it put a lot of undue strain on me. That's one reasons why I had something of a melt-down right after highschool, and didn't go back to school until I was in my twenties. In hindsight, I would have been better served if my parents had held me back a year. So, I bear that in mind as I look at my daughter.
.
.
.

[Wild Boar]

I like your parenting philosophy. It's so important for the child to know that they are safe, loved and happy. Of course now that we're at the point where we're needing to set some boundaries, there are times where that last item is a little difficult.

We don't push our little girl either, but if she shows an interest in learning/doing something, we try to help her (paradoxically, often by us refusing to help her with something she can do herself).

We are a little concerned that she's really not using real words as she nears 15 months. She does use sign language and also has an amazing grasp of what we say to her, but she just isn't using real words yet. However, during her pseudo speak, there are some psuedo words that sound very familiar. It is possible that she's using some words but in ways that we're just not able to understand.

[Callipygian]

We are a little concerned that she's really not using real words as she nears 15 months. She does use sign language and also has an amazing grasp of what we say to her, but she just isn't using real words yet. However, during her pseudo speak, there are some psuedo words that sound very familiar. It is possible that she's using some words but in ways that we're just not able to understand.
Don't worry. She sounds like a very bright child. All kids reach milestones at different times...she'll start verbalizing more when she's ready. It may be that she finds signing to be an easier means of communication than verbal language, so she's not using verbal as much. My son didn't even begin walking until 15 months because he just didn't feel like it. But, boy, once he did...look out! I'm sure your beautiful baby will be just fine.

Calli