Tooth Troll?

When I was a kid, I was always looking for ways to make money. My American Girl doll needed new clothes and accessories, Clare's boutique stocked the latest and greatest plastic jewelry and hairclips, and Limited Too had all manner of girly, flowered clothing to buy. So....I raked leaves, shoveled snow, babysat. But...the least labor intensive, but possibly most painful means of collecting money came by way of the magical tooth fairy (aka Mom and Dad) who visited my room the night after I lost a tooth. I would go through the exciting ritual of putting the gross, dead hunk of enamel under my pillow and wait until morning when I woke up and the tooth would be gone and be replaced with moolah. Easiest $20 I ever made (not $20 per tooth.....20 teeth x $1.00 a tooth).

Well....Ben is being visited by the other teething creature that I'm going to call the tooth troll. I looked up the antonym for "fairy" and came up with ogre, gremlin, troll. We'll go with proper alliteration and call it the tooth troll. Unfortunately this little bugger won't bring Ben any money and isn't nearly as exciting. I noticed in Denver that Ben was grabbing his ears like crazy and continued to do it when we got home. I took him to the doctor worried about either an ear infection or possibly something wrong due to pressure changes on the airplane. No infection....just teeth. There's a nerve that runs along the gumline up to the ear so it's common for kids to pull at their ears when they're getting their bottom teeth. No actual teeth coming through, but lots of ear pulling and LOTS of cranky baby.

Luckily, trolls can be staved off. They still manage to rear their ugly heads but they are restrained with the help of baby Motrin, Oragel, and Sassy Teething Feeders filled with frozen foods and ice cubes.

On a side note....another thing that should be banned for parents of young children (besides daylight savings/timechanges).......FIREWORKS. Light sleepers + the 4th of July = COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE.