So the little sausage man has now attained a new nickname, the claw. Baby boy is still wonderfully plump and all that but he has now started to grab anything and everything that crosses his path, hence the claw. And he is not exactly gentle, just the other morning I really thought he had pulled one of my nostrils clean off my face, I actually had to run to the bathroom mirror to check if it was still attached to my nose. It definitely doesn't help that his little fingernails would give Freddy Kruger's razors a run for their money. I really can't even keep them trimmed, they grow so quickly, I feel like by the time I finish clipping his second hand the first reaches out and rips my lip off with its razor sharpness. And it's not just me who feels the wrath of the claw, big sister is definitely one of his favorite targets, or at least her long beautiful hair is. Somehow with his new ability to claw and yank everything in his path he has also developed a Shaq like reach. Sister can be walking by the other side of the room from him and somehow suddenly she is yanked back by her hair, the claw has it in his grasp. And then to try and get him to release the claw is similar to trying to release the jaws of a pit bull, sometimes I need to grab the nearest maraca or toy drumstick and shove it into the claw in order to pry it off. The claw isn't the only weapon in baby boy's arsenal either, he has also developed a nasty little bite with those four tiny teeth he recently acquired. And the biting usually occurs right after I wrench my ear out of the claw's grasp, he'll look at me and smile and then chomp down on my shoulder. My wife and I both have suffered a couple of tiny toothy bruises in the same shoulder area. He also recently started crawling, so I had put him down for a minute in the living room and was sitting working on the computer and he crawled up and bit me on the ankle. Would it be terrible parenting if I went out and bought one of those octagonal playpen/cages and just plopped him in there for a while until the biting and clawing subside? I guess I wouldn't have the heart to do that, and I'm probably not helping anything by cracking up whenever he bites or claws mommy, me or sister. I suppose it's time to get serious...Let the time outs begin!!
