Secret Squirrel

The Manling is still working on perfecting the crawling. He wriggles, he rolls, he staggers, but he does not do a distinct crawl consistently. This is absolutely fine by me.

He came down with a fever over 102 degrees earlier this week. I at first thought it was just our record-setting heat, but slowly it dawned on me that his head was practically glowing. I took his temperature using my as-yet-to-be-used-for-its-rightful-purpose basal thermometer, as well as the ear thermometer that I can't get to switch from Celcius. Luckily, however, I have a college education in science so I can convert at the drop of a hat. A day and a night of Motrin, AKA Liquid Sleep, plus cool baths, cool washcloths, and lots of breastfeeding and the fever went away.

It occurred to me that maybe the copious amounts of drool, the fever, and my mom saying that his recent pictures all show him smiling with his mouth askew meant that he might be teething again. I pried his mouth open to see red puffy gums and the faintest glimmer of a upper front tooth buried inside. I was told oce that squirrels can lock their jaws when they bite, so if you get bitten by a squirrel, you generally have to break their jaw to get them off you. I don't know if it's true or not, but I was reminded of this as I tried to get that look into the Manling's mouth.

I did some frantic research on-line about fevers, emergency rooms, and teething before the fever had gone down. I find it intersting that some doctors say teething can cause a fever and some say that a fever is just a coincidence and is really a sign of some other ailment at the time. The Manling had no fevers during the first wham, bam, thank you ma'am set of teething. A second characteristic that may or may not be asssociated with teething is diarrhea. None the first time, but after the fever went away, I was gifted with a hearty 5-wipe poop. I'm thinking that these signs might indicate we are going to see some teeth soon.

Mark has decided not to go for the very-fasr-away job. I'm very relieved by that. But now of course I feel guilty for not contributing financially. I don't want to leave the Manling. Hell, I've got insomnia just thinking about who will watch him for one evening for my birthday, nevermind trying to get a job and find daycare. Luckily, it has not come to that point yet.