TEETH

It's all happening on the teeth front.

One of Alex's front milk teeth finally fell out at Film Club on Friday: he came home with it in one of those plastic money bags people use when they have lots of coins to take to the bank.  Rather appropriate, really.  The Tooth Fairy was a bit confused on Friday evening as he slept downstairs in the TV room with David: however she managed to take the tooth and replace it with a £1 coin on Saturday.

The amazing thing about it is that it is SO small!  Maybe 3 or 4 mm in width; perhaps 7mm long including the root.  The two new front teeth are already coming through behind and you can see that his jaw, or gum, has somehow expanded so that the bigger new teeth will fit.

Bella and Edward on the other hand have both had bigger teeth from the start - especially noticeable for the top two at the front.  Whilst Alex's teeth always came through one by one, Bella's came through in pairs and Edward has had 4 very close together.  Edward has also had the most problem with his: with the other two one day the teeth weren't there and the next they were, or at least had clearly cut the skin, and I don't remember any of the symptoms which so many people report in relation to their babies.  Edward on the other hand has chosen to be different - as he quite often does - and has had a bad week with disgusting nappies, not wanting to eat anything (particularly not anything too hard) and sleeping badly.  It's noticeable that now tooth number 3 (or numbers 3 and 4 - I'm not sure) have cut the skin that he's back to enjoying his food.

Developments are coming apace as he also started waving (or flapping) and clapping (with one fist curled up) this week.

Meanwhile Isabella and I went this evening to the Carlisle Christmas lights switch on, thinking it would be hugely tacky and (on my part) with some reservations.  We enjoyed it tremendously, and as David had decided it wouldn't be his cup of tea we took Nicola and Ella with us who were excellent company as they enjoyed it as much as we did: there was a lot of laughter and singing along to songs.  The lights are lovely and not in the slightest bit tacky: lots of lovely white lights in trees and then a few blue ones.

I just wish they'd had a little bit of the traditional christmas stuff, like carols and so forth.  I was contemplating that a solo singer performing 'Silent Night' or some other well-known carol would have been a lovely contrast to the other acts and perhaps have created its own special atmosphere... maybe I should suggest it for next year?