raging teeth

Marie has been teething on and off since she was 3 months old, but this is that times a hundred. This is ridiculous. She's so irritable, she bites down on stuff soooo hard. Seriously, you wouldn't think that someone who as yet has no teeth could bite down on your finger quite so hard and cause you quite so much pain. The good news, however, is twofold. First, it's crankiness and not full-on meltdownness, which means she's much more high maintenance, but she's not screaming all day. Second, there's an end (or a respite, at least) in sight, as you can actually see that all four of her front incisors are coming in. Still, I'll be glad when she's cut her first couple of teeth and it calms down a bit.

On an unrelated note, it seems Marie is developing a real sense of humor. I was able to get her to laugh for the first time yesterday (Toffi has been able to get her to do it for a few days now. I guess he's funnier than I am.)! It was definitely one of those you-know-you're-a-parent-now moments because I went to great and silly lengths to get a giggle out of her. What did it in the end was me clucking and flapping my arms like a chicken. Yup. There I was, sitting in the living room making chicken noises at a baby (what have I become?). And my silliness was rewarded with an honest-to-god chuckle. I don't know when babies normally develop the ability to find something genuinely funny, but I'm pretty proud of my little one and her awareness that her mom looks like a complete jackass while impersonating a farm animal.

blue eyes

tapping tootsies

We've got feet, people. Marie has discovered hers and is head-over-heels in love. Working at the computer is a little cumbersome, what with my screen issues, but rest assured that we're all doing great and are enjoying Marie's fascination with her feet.

mayday

My computer is nearly dead. More specifically, the screen is on its last legs. When I start up, the screen is black. If I tilt it a little, it'll light up suddenly and then go black again. If I hold it at a certain angle, it'll stay lit up. But who knows how long that will work. I think it's only a matter of time before this machine becomes no longer salvageable. So if you have anything important to tell me, you might want to call or send a text message rather than email me. I will, in the meantime, be mourning the impending loss of my main line to the outside world...

left-brained logical

The Right Brain vs Left Brain Test If you see dancer rotating clockwise, you are right-brained (creative), counter-clockwise, left-brained (logical).

This is a trip. When I first showed it to him, Toffi and I spent several minutes arguing about the (im)possibility of us seeing the dancer spin in exactly opposite directions. For me, the dancer clearly spins counter-clockwise. For Toffi, she's a clockwise kinda girl. In fact, Toffi was so sure of her clockwise nature and so suspicious of my deviant sight that he had to open the link on his computer, as if my computer was involved in some conspiracy with me. Yes, my laptop and I are in cahoots. Once he had accepted the fact that we really did see two different things and after we had been talking about the strangeness of that fact for a while, I suddenly saw her spinning clockwise out of the corner of my eye. We then both started staring at her, willing her to change directions. I had the most success when looking just to the side of her. But then she always went back to her default counter-clockwise spinning. Clearly, I could only trick my brain for a few revolutions. Seriously, you'd think we were stoned the way we were fascinated by this mere spinning silhouette.