Learning, Learning, Learning

Baby is developing a visible hunger to learn. Not only does she carry books to both her parents, and begin giggling when we put her on our lap to read one, but her eyes widen and a smile develops anytime we focus on a word for her benefit. Yesterday, I asked her to identify objects I named from a picture book and she pointed to the right one again and again, and clearly felt great about it. Her teething pain, meanwhile, continues to mount – despite our efforts to mitigate it with baby Tylenol – with the progression of her molars through her gums. We are told that the eye teeth, next and last on the agenda, are worse; I can barely contemplate such an idea. On the other hand, I am convinced that the arrival of all these teeth, punctuated though it is by agony, develops verbal skill. And, while the memory of the pain will hopefully be fleeting, the joys of speech will, we hope, endure.