Lungs

This was originally written 1/8/2004 when my daughter was 8 months old:

Rachel has a new tooth! It was a major turning point in my life when we found that first little pearly white peeking up from her gums. Wow, she's going to look different now with her little toothy grin...this is a whole new level of cute. This should also make nursing somewhat more interesting.

The last week or so of teething combined with a nasty bout of diaper rash has brought our communication to a new height. My baby has found her lungs. She can now sing soprano with the best of them. She has been such a mild, calm baby that I have almost taken it for granted. Once she discovered that screaming gets reaction and results, a whole new dimension opens up and the battle begins. I read somewhere recently that by this age, babies are already excellent mommy manipulators and I'm discovering this to be true. This morning she was in the other room playing and talking to herself, and as soon as I walked in, she started crying, screaming, and chewing me out.

This has come on so sudden that it has thrown me for a loop. Since she has been so good and so easy, I envisioned her growing up as this angelic child that was always sweet and polite, with built-in manners and only pure, innocent instincts. When my husband and I were searching for baby names before she was born, we found an Internet site that let you search names by meaning. I never found anything that meant "perfect child" or "well-behaved." Rachel's name means "lamb" and she fits it to a T. Little lambs do grow up, however, and learn to kick up their heels and butt their heads.

I've done my own share of heel-kicking and head-butting myself. I think many of us who are faced with new, unexpected, and misunderstood pain lash back with some screaming and crying of our own. When the pain is all through, however, we've grown in some way. Sometimes the result is a new tooth; sometimes it's a soul that's that much more refined and purified. I guess the key is to learn from the pain...let it be your teacher. Or better yet, let the Lord be your teacher during the experience that He has let you go through.