Smile!

I almost forgot to share this news: while Tosca was trying to fight off her cold with a high fever, tooth number 7 showed itself! With 4 teeth on the top and 3 on the bottom, we nearly have a full smile! Time to start brushing!

Tosca and her 7 teeth, ready to eat and put on that lost weight!

The magic number

Many friends have always told me that once your child turns 3, things become much easier. Auro has indeed changed a lot over the past couple of months and has become much more independent. On the 17th of September, we celebrated his 3rd birthday with a little party at home and some days later (on the 21st) he started school (a small kindergarten or asilo in a beautiful place, high on a mountain, with an amazing view) . In Italy, sending a child to school for the first time is taken very seriously. The first days or weeks (depending on the child) is called the inserimento period (or acclimation period). During this time a child is allowed to gradually get used to this new world that is opening up to him. So, the first 3 days he went from 10 o'clock until 11. The first day I stayed with him for an hour. The next day for half an hour. The 3rd day I was asked to wait outside. On the 4th day he took the schoolbus and we followed by car. The next day he took the bus by himself and I went to pick him up before lunch time. After that he was ready to be picked up after lunch. And, today, exactly 2 weeks since his first day, he will stay in school the whole day. A little before 8 this morning he got on the yellow schoolbus, and around 16:15 I will be waiting for him at the bust stop!! I don't know if this inserimento period exists in other countries, but I had never heard of anything like this. I must say: it seems to be a good thing. After all, it is a big change for a small kid and this way he can ease into his new situation without too many tears. Of course, Auro did cry a little bit the first days, but now he seems to be ok with the idea of being away from me and spending time with other children playing, drawing, listening to stories...  

While Auro was busy turning 3, also Tosca went through a big change. Except for the fact that she caught her first cold (fever, stuffy nose and lots of crying and sleepless nights), she woke up one morning with a little tooth sticking through the gums on her lower jaw. Some days later, a second one showed itself. Tosca is no longer toothless! Her nights of undisturbed peaceful sleeping, unfortunately, have not returned yet. She still wakes up almost every night and cries, cries, cries...

Auro with his birthday crown (to my surprise he wore it practically the whole day!)

 

First day of school!

Tosca and her 2 first little teeth

A bit messy, but very tasty cookie!

First molar

After Christmas, Auro came down with a fever (40 degrees!), so we had to call the doctor. Luckily it's just a viral infection in the throat, so he doesn't have to take any antibiotics, but the past days have been a bit tough for him. With all the crying that (apparently) comes with a viral infection, I discovered a new tiny little tooth in the back of Auro's mouth: his first molar! For those of you who are still counting: this is tooth number nine ;-)

By the way

Just to make sure that none of Auro's milkteeth will ever feel 'left out' because it didn't get as much attention as the others, I have to mention this: last Sunday we welcomed tooth number eight in Auro's mouth! May it grow strong and white and chew many tasty things!

Numbers

The fact that we are relaxing in Turkey, does not mean that Auro's physical and mental development has taken a break. On the contrary! Here are some numbers.

* Auro's weight (measured just before we came to Turkey): 8900 grams
* Auro's height (also measured just before Turkey): 75 cm

* number of breastfeedings in a day: 2 (we recently replaced the afternoon-milk with some fruit and/or a cookie)
* number of 'frietjes' (=French fries/chips/pommes frites) Auro has refused to eat so far: 0 (He definitely IS Belgian!)
* number of ready-made babyfood Auro opens his mouth for: 1 (couscous with vegetables... everything else needs to be fresh!)
* number of shiny white (and amazingly sharp!) little teeth: 7 (number 7 saw the light right here in Turkey)
* number of (airplane) flights Auro has been on in his life: 18
* number of countries our little globetrotter has 'visited' so far: 8 (Belgium, Italy, Austria, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and Turkey)

Last minute

Tomorrow, Auro will be 10 months old, but today, while he is still 9 months old, his 6th tooth came through! And I can assure you this one is just as sharp as the other five.Two teeth on the bottom and four on the top: his mouth is in balance again... at least for now ;-)

Discoveries

Today, I made two discoveries.

The first one was this morning when I inspected Auro's mouth (which I started doing regularly since his gum turned white) and saw that 'tooth number 5' had decided to come out! Congratulations, Auro! Five down, fifteen to go!
The second dicovery came later in the afternoon and I can't really take credit for it since it wasn't me, but Els (my brother's girlfriend) who made it. She discovered that we have a tree in our garden that bears cherries. At least we think that's what they are. They look a little different from the ones we are used to, but they have the same sweet taste. My parents bought this house when my mother was pregnant with me, so I actually grew up here, but I never noticed that we had a cherry tree. What a strange but amazing discovery, wouldn't you say?

Number 4

Yesterday Auro woke up with one more tooth! He now has 2 on the bottom and 2 on the top. High time to try that toothbrush that's been sitting in the diaper bag since Auro was 4 months old!
I was expecting a lot of resistance when I put the tooth brush in his mouth and (very gently) rubbed his new teeth with it,but he rather seemed to enjoy it. The taste of the baby toothpaste almost made him change his mind, but when I let go of the toothbrush, he happily took over and chewed on it for another 5 minutes! He cried when I took it away...

Nine months

Yesterday, Auro was exactly 9 months old. This means that I can't claim anymore that he has spent most of his life inside of me :D
So let's recapitulate: our 9-month old boy is the proud owner of 3 mini teeth, has reached the height of 71cm, weighs a little over 8 kilos (of which, I suspect, more than half is made up by his protruding belly... OMG, he eats a lot!!) and has a vocabulary that reaches from 'gaga', 'dada' to (and this is my favourite) 'mama'!
Another news: tomorrow night my little 'big boy' and I are flying to Belgium. We will arrive at 5:30 in the morning... hope you can make it, opa!?!

Three at once

During our travel to Hong Kong and Macau, Auro had some restless nights and cried a bit more often than usually, but almost as soon as we came back to Changchun and we went back to our old routines, he calmed down, caught up all the lost sleep and after a couple of days he was his old happy self again. For the first time in over a month, I also managed to sleep for 8 hours straight again (Yeah!!!).
And then, one morning, there it was: Auro's first tooth! For months already, people were constantly asking me about Auro's teeth: "Does he have teeth yet? How about his teeth? Still nothing?". It reminded me a bit of the questions many of those same people used to ask me when I was still in high school: "Do you have a boyfriend yet? Where's your boyfriend?" (Why don't you ask me now, huh?). Anyway, every peep Auro made and every cry he uttered was blamed on those evil teeth that were for sure tormenting him. Now finally they are here!! I say 'they', because, in just some days, two more came out! Now, Auro has two little white pieces of tooth sticking out from his bottom jaw and a slightly bigger one is showing from the top. The rest of his gum is white-ish too, so I'm expecting the other one on the top to show itself soon too.