Holy Molars, Batman!

Molly got in a new tooth, her first molar, and I didn't even know about it. I got a big surprise last week when Molly threw back her head, opened her mouth and let loose with a big ol' belly laugh. There in the back of her mouth I spotted something. Was she still chomping on a snack or was that actually a tooth back there? I grabbed her and pried open her mouth to see. At this point the shrieks of laughter were turning into shrieks of anger, but mission accomplished, I saw the tooth. A molar no less. I guess God felt sorry for me and threw me a bone on this one. A whine-free tooth!

Doesn't sound like a big deal to you? Well it is to me. Little Miss Molly is a royal crabby-pants when she is teething. She whines incessantly from morning to night. This whining has actually driven me to tears on occasion, prompting me to call Tony at work and do a little whining of my own.

Molly now has a grand total of nine teeth, five up and four below...not one of them has come in straight. She has a bite only an orthodontist with a large boat payment could love. I remember my grandmother calling crooked teeth "boondina teeth" which translates to mean knitted teeth (sidenote: I apologize to all the Italians out there. I know that boondina is not spelled correctly, but that's the way it sounds!). Molly, God love her, is the poster child for boondina teeth. Let's just hope the permanent teeth grow in a little straighter (yeah, like that's gonna happen).

Molly has some other developmental milestones to report as well. She can:

• Walk forward and backward.
• Dribble a soccer ball.
• Throw a ball in the direction that she intend for it to go.
• Use sign language for more, all done, water, milk, yogurt, cantaloupe, sleepy, bye-bye, open, close, yes and no.
• Use a spoon and a fork to feed herself.
• Take her shoes off and put them back on (sometimes she even gets the shoes on the correct feet).
• Stack four stacking cups in correct order.

I was so thinking that she was a genius. In fact, Harvard is on my speed dial. I call them at least once a week to let them know that they have a potential Einstein coming their way in about 17 years. Imagine my shock when I went to the doctor's office for Molly's 18 month check-up and they hand me a Developmental Milestones for 18 Month Olds brochure. Guess what was listed. Yep: can walk forward and backward, can kick a ball, can throw a ball, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Oh well, here are some other milestones not listed on the doctor's handy-dandy brochure. Molly can:

• Use the TV remote to imitate mommy talking on her cell phone.
• Tear off the appropriate amount of toilet paper and hand it to me when I am in the bathroom (hey, the cling-on baby follows me in there EVERY time...I had to teach her something to make her useful!).
• Tease other kids by offering them one of her toys and then pulling it away at the last minute.
• Empty the clothes from the dryer and place every pair of underwear over her head.

Yes, I am the proud, proud mommy of the most amazing child on this planet! Well, at least if you don't consider the underwear-on-the-head thing.