Pureed Wedding Cake

Perhaps one of my most favorite things about Cameron are his gums. His perfect, pink, toothless gums. I don’t know why I love them so much, but whenever I get the gummy smile, my heart melts, birds sing, and the world is right.

You can therefore imagine my anxiety over the inevitable development of those horrid white things that will ruin his mouth forever. I know I am incredibly lucky with my love of his irresistible gums, that he, at almost ten months, does not have any teeth yet. None. Not even an inkling.

At his 9 month appt. the pediatrician said his gums at least felt swollen this time and she thought that there would be a tooth within the next two weeks. However, she cautioned, they can swell up then go back down again.

Toothwatch ‘09 began. Every cry, every fuss, every fidget “must be because of his tooth.” He became cranky, irritable, snotty. Oh, how snotty. Then it happened. I looked over and he was eating a roll of toilet paper, which had just a faint tinge of blood on it. A tooth! I wrestled him to the ground, pinned him down and pried his mouth open. A white spot! A white spot! A Tooth! He then shoved me over and went on his way.

A Tooth! I called John. A Tooth! I called my sister. A Tooth! I called my mom, who happened to be coming out for a visit the next day. She arrived, we all looked, yup there’s that white spot. Day or so later, we couldn’t quite find it. Apparently acrobatic magoo had somehow bashed his gum into something, splitting it, causing a teeny tiny amount of bleeding and a white patch, which has since vanished. And the crankiness and fussiness was a cold.

So I feigned disappointment. Bummer, hasn’t reached that milestone yet. Shucks. While secretly delighting in my toothless wonder, wondering just how long one can go in life without teeth.