Pearly Whites and Other Things

December was eventful for us Brownes. In no particular order...

We had Christmas (magical).

We had a (someday-will-be-funny-maybe-it-already-is) accident at the house involving the fireplace and a broken shop vacuum.

We had our very first family-wide Vomit Fest.

Piercy started really pulling herself up this month, she found her "clucking" tongue, and she's realized she is sometimes a faster crawler than her mother is reactionary.

June Bug and Lady Bird both put on a little Christmas weight (but they got some cute, very slimming, seasonal collars in their stockings from Santa Claus).

And, Piercy Joye cut her first teeth.  Two pearly beauts.

The day after she and I were both finally recovering from a combined weekend of Soot Explosion 2011 (yes, that's correct) and Browne Family Vomit Fest 2011, and while Daddy Greg was teetering on the edge of puking, it became obvious to me that Piercy was trying to get her first tooth.  Just as quickly as the first, bottom right tooth came in, the next was right behind.

Now, you should know that we've been waiting for this moment for a while now.  Piercy's very advanced (read: freak of a) mother was born with a tooth. Believe it.  These rare teeth are sometimes called "milk teeth," "natal teeth," or "alien baby teeth."  According to BabyCenter.com, one in every 2,000 babies is born with teeth (winner, winner, chicken dinner!), and it's clearly an evolutionary advantage... or something...

The nurses who helped me labor with Piercy were so very excited at the possibility of seeing their first newborn with teeth.  Well, Baby Girl, at almost nine months, here we finally are, with a couple of pearls in that sweet, gummy smile.

Couple of Toofers, AND a nose wink!

And now for a few gratuitous pictures I got before -finally- capturing the teeth.  I would like to request a baby teeth shooting tutorial from my bloggy mommy compadres who get beautiful, clear shots inside their precious angels' mouths.  Impossible, I say!

Maraca Snack 

Beautiful locks coming in nicely

Hmmmm...

Another Toothy Smile!

Oh, and raspberries.  We're blowing lots of raspberries.

Lastly, add to the list of "Things No One Tells You, Not Because They Don't Want You To Know, But Because There Are just Too Many Things To Remember To Tell You If And When You Ask:

Sophie the Giraffe gets really dirty.  Disgustingly so.  Somehow, that animal is like a black smudge collector.  Our two "Sophies" are named "Ginnie," because "Ginnie the Giraffe" sounded great.  Anyway, I started to hand Ginnie to Piercy Joye today and had to quickly retract this chewable toy.  I should have taken a "before" photo, but needless to say, both the girls got a bath tonight.

Bathing Beauties

Here's another tip: There's this "secret" that like 10% of all new moms know and share to others on a hush-hush basis. Are you ready for it? They say you can wash Sophie/Ginnie in the dishwasher.  Well.  As far as I can tell, that's w.r.o.n.g.  Soph/Gin has a hole in her backside because she squeaks alarmingly like a dog's squeaky toy, which is incredibly frustrating to every dog.  If water gets in the hole, it's not coming out, and there goes the squeakability (which I wouldn't so much mind), and the peace of mind that your child isn't ingesting small amounts of moldy water when it happens to make its way out the hole on occasion (I kind of mind this, but not that much).

Moral of the story is that I think the "secret" is a hoax.  Just hold your finger over the hole while you scrub-a-dub-dub your cute giraffes in hot, soapy water. Rinse. Repeat.  See how happy they are when they're clean?

And my last "Thing They Don't Tell You" is...

If you are pumping, go ahead and pick up extras of these:

The White Flapper Part

This is to my Medela pump, but I imagine that most all models have some similar apparatus.  These little things tear after you use them (and clean them) twice or more a day.  Your pump becomes practically useless if your flappers have holes, so keep some extras on hand, gals!

Off to Sanitize...

And Happy New Year to All!