I think that Iliya could possibly become a card-carrying member of the Drool club. His mouth has been pouring drool for several weeks, now, with no sign of letting up.

I can't remember if I mentioned it in another post, but for his second birthday, mother nature gave Iliya his very first 2nd year molar. It was his bottom-left (if you're looking into his mouth - so I guess, technically, it is his bottom-right. anyway...) and other than some drool, he didn't seem to be terribly cranky about it. It looked awfully gross -- I've been on the lookout for new teeth since I noticed an excess of drool, so I've seen this one from the beginning.

I could see the indention of the tooth under the gum and slowly but surely, it erupted. I looked every night and watched as the middle of the tooth was still gummy all the way until the tooth was all the way out.

If you know me, you're probably as surprised as I am that I actually watched that progression. And using the word "erupt" to describe the process literally makes me break out into a cold sweat. I'm weird like that. Perhaps this is a rite of passage for me. What will I be able to do next? Handle vomit? I hope I don't find out anytime soon.

Anyway... So last night, we had gone to a Christmas dinner for an organization Nathan is a member of - and when we got home, Iliya was pretty cranky. I attributed it to the lateness of the hour, but then we noticed that Iliya's mouth was bleeding pretty heavily. He hadn't fallen recently, and wasn't crying in pain or favoring his mouth, so we weren't sure what was going on. As all good parents do, we grabbed the full-size Maglite (where is a smaller flashlight when you need it??) and started trying to find the source of the blood. This is a very difficult task, when you tell a 2 year old to "let me see in your mouth!" and he says, "aahhhhh" complete with the tongue sticking out...which blocks all views of the inside of the mouth, including the back teeth.

Anyway, we finally saw a large chunk of gum just hanging on where his bottom right left molar should be coming in soon. (i'm feeling rather faint writing about this) And it was bleeding, but not too badly. We ever-so-slightly freaked out, and then decided that it didn't seem to be bothering him so we weren't going to over-worry about it. I gave him some Motrin, just in case it hurt & he wasn't letting us know. I figured I would get a better look in the morning and if it freaked me out then, I would take him to the doctor. Or the dentist. (I wasn't sure which, but figured that I would make the decision in my sleep).

This morning, I took a look and the chunk of gum was gone (don't really want to speculate where it went) and there was the indention of the tooth under the gum. So it looks like that by Christmas time, Iliya could very well be singing, "All I want for Christmas is my 2 top-back-teeth!"

In other news, we went to the pediatrician last Tuesday - I forgot to write about it. Iliya is now 26 1/2 lbs. and 31"...in 2 months, he has only gained 1 pound, but has grown 2 inches. Slowly, but surely, he is becoming longer & leaner. But by no means tall! In fact (AnnMarie, this is for you), now that he is two, I've started getting more & more size comments. He talks - a lot - but often, only Nathan & I (or others who spend a significant amount of time with him) can understand him. Everyone else just thinks he jabbers. But he so does not just jabber. In fact, paired with sign language, he puts thoughts together and communicates with us fairly well. His pronunciation of stuff - while becoming better every day - is just a work in progress.

But I digress...

Because he "jabbers" and because he is smaller than many 2 year olds, and because his hair is not extremely thick, people often think he is a bit younger than he actually is. And when they find out he is 2, they just cannot believe it. We get lots of "well, my niece/friend's kid/whoever" is 14 months old & is bigger than him!" These comments often come from perfect strangers.

In part - because I am never sure whether these strangers are implying that my child is small or other said child is big, I usually just let that kind of stuff roll off my back... but it is starting to get a little old. As do the "can he talk yet?" questions. But I know they are normal questions...and I try to have patience. I just sometimes want to make a badge for him that says, yes, I can talk. I can communicate. even though I don't pronunciate very well, I have over 100 words in my productive vocabulary, and even more than that in my receptive vocabulary. I don't know Russian anymore, and my mom & dad really don't know how much I ever really spoke, since they don't understand more than 15 words in Russian.

I seriously digressed there. I guess in my mind, I know where Iliya has been, and how far he has come in the past 9 months. I'm with him every day, so I know. You are my faithful readers, so you know, too. I can't have unrealistic expectations of strangers and other people who aren't with him every day or who don't keep up with life happenings through the blog.

So there, my rambling/vent is overwith. Guess I just have to have one of those every now & again.

So let's end on a positive (or unfortunately, not so positive?) note. Let's just say it will make you smile. Last Saturday night, we went to see Santa with Sarah, Kristy, Patrick & Nat. Should I even elaborate at this point?

Nah, let me just show you a couple of pictures.






On that note...have a most wonderful day!