Rachael & Tim: Annalise at nineteen months

The 19th of the month really snuck up on me this time. I almost missed it, with Christmas right around the corner. So what's new with Annie..?

She's going through another little phase of separation anxiety. She doesn't like to be taken to people's homes, and she clings to me thinking I'll leave her there. She also didn't like it when I left her at the church nursery during Delaney's Christmas program, but she only cried for a few seconds. I peeked in on her a few minutes later, and she was contentedly playing with some dolls. When Tim went to pick her up later, the babysitter brought her to the window to hand her over, and as soon as she saw Tim, she burst into tears. I gave her lots of hugs and kisses. Maybe I should've just let her squirm on my lap through the Christmas program.

Guess what? She finally got a couple new teeth! She now has one more bottom tooth, and another tooth coming in farther back. I try to remember to brush them at least twice a day. I don't know if I mentioned in her last update, but she's got bad teeth. If you look closely, her enamel is thin, and there are some dark spots on her teeth. It looks like baby bottle rot, but she's never taken a bottle. I have an appointment for her to see a pediatric dentist next month, and I'm worried about what they'll say. I look at Delaney's pearly whites, and I wonder what went wrong? I treated them both the same, same (sometimes lax) tooth-brushing habits, same food and drink. I've never put either of them to bed with juice or milk. But Delaney has good teeth and Annie has bad teeth. The nurse-practitioner at the naval health clinic told me that I wasn't taking good enough care of her teeth and that's why they were the way they were.

My smile is pretty, but if you look closely, you'll see trouble.

I called my mom for reassurance, because I know she didn't follow us around with a toothbrush all day, and I didn't have a cavity until I was 28. She said she thought that nurse-practitioner had some nerve telling me that. That made me feel a little better, but I've still got a kid who has British teeth and I don't know how it happened. My next thought was fluoride. Maybe they're not getting enough of it. But when I called the naval clinic asking for a prescription for the same sodium fluoride drops that had been prescribed for Delaney over a year ago (different pediatrician, different state), they acted like I was trying to poison my kids. They said that since we have city water, they get enough fluoride. When I said they don't drink very much water -- mostly milk or juice -- they said that nevertheless they get enough fluoride through the water we cook with. (Nevermind that these kids barely eat anything most days..) I will definitely feel better after talking to the pediatric dentist. I just wish I could get her in sooner. Yes, I know I'm a bad mommy for not having taken her when she turned a year. I just didn't think a kid needed to go to the dentist until 2 at the earliest. But rotting teeth are another matter. Tim and I are about to have some huge dental bills, between Delaney and her future braces and Annie's tooth decay. We'd better start a dental fund right along with the college fund.

She continues to talk more and more, and says, "Yeah" a lot in that deep, breathy voice that is so funny. She loves to talk on the phone and on Skype, although she doesn't like to talk as much as smile a lot, so Skype is really best. Here are the girls and their daddy Skyping with Grandpa. At the end of that conversation, she waved and said, "Bye, Grandpa." (At Tim's prompting) she said, "I love you." It melted my heart.

She has been having some temper flare-ups lately. When she decides she doesn't want to be strapped into her carseat this time, she'll arch her whole body and cry, making it very difficult for me to wrestle her in. She throws little fits sometimes when she's tired and in need of a nap. But they're very seldom and short-lived. Still, I know that 2 is coming in a few months, and when that happens, she'll probably do some things to appall me. What will it be? Poop on the walls? Full-blown tantrums in public? Tim thinks that she will be a real trouble-maker, way worse than Delaney ever was. I don't know if I agree with that. We will both see.

I will leave you with this photo of her taken by Delaney. It is not a view of her that is normally photographed, but I think it's beautiful.