Week 20

Dear Zayde,

This week I learned that my mouth is being attacked from the inside.  I noticed that I've been producing more moisture in my mouth for a few weeks, a situation that causes Mommy and Daddy to incessantly wipe my face with a cloth and refer to me as their "little drooler," which I am not at all sure is a compliment.  I didn't mind the drool, but this week I've become increasingly aware of a growing pain that emanates from deep within my gums.  Something mean and persistent is trying to ruin my normally happy life, and I don't know why.  I learned that sucking on frozen toys seems to alleviate temporarily the intensity of the discomfort, but the reprieve is short-lived, and soon I am once again plunged into the depths of oral despair.  On a side note, I should report that my parents were highly amused by the look on my face when I first placed one of those extremely cold teething toys in my mouth.  Apparently I appeared both surprised and relieved.  They laugh at the strangest things.

Just yesterday I learned that all of my cousins like to play with me on the floor.  A few weeks ago, my cousins from Philadelphia got down on the floor with me so we could play football.  (Or rather, so I could hold and lick the football.)  This week I visited my cousins who live just 20 minutes away, and they got right down on the floor with me so we could play with my moose.  It was wonderful to grab Amanda's hair and stare at Ross while he made funny faces.  (I also learned that my uncle likes to make funny faces at me, but Mommy says that he wasn't trying to be funny; that's just his normal face.)  Amanda and Mommy took me for a walk around the neighborhood where my cousins live, and I learned that they have trees, too.  Their sidewalks offer a smoother ride than the ones near our house, so I'm hoping Mommy will take me back there for another jaunt.  I heard everyone talking about how Amanda is going to get something called a "license" soon, which will make it easier for her to come play with me.  Isn't that wonderful?

Speaking of being on the ground, this week I learned that when I let go of my toys, they fall down.  Previously I assumed that when I stopped holding something it just disappeared until Mommy once again presented it to me.  This week I was playing with one of my rattles while sitting in my bumbo chair.  As usual, I was sucking on the rattle and my hands, and when everything got too wet and slippery, I dropped the rattle.  It hit the play mat with a tiny thud and tinkle, so I followed the sound with my eyes and was shocked to see that the rattle was just sitting there on the ground and hadn't vanished into thin air.  Since then, I've repeated the experiment at least 50 times, and the same thing happens during each trial.  I've tried balls, books, and even my moose.  Everything falls!  (Mommy is a patient lab assistant who is happy to pick up the toys and hand them to me as often as necessary.)  This can't be some sort of fluke.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this falling-to-the-ground phenomenon is true about all objects, and not just toys.  This could be a huge discovery.  Do you have Stephen Hawking's email address?  I'd like to tell him about this and ask him if he'd like to co-author a paper for one of the major journals.  The world should know about this!

Yours tiny scientist,
Zelda