my child is a vampire

I feel so guilty!  Today was the first day that Liam was left in the nursery at church even though both Garvin and I were there (I was a part of the service in my role as Worship Associate so I couldn't tend to him, Garvin was trying to take pictures of the service since we were in costumes - Harry Potter themed service - and trying to take pictures while wearing Liam on his back was just too much for him).  Well, since Liam is rarely taken care of by anyone but Garvin or I, and the few people who HAVE watched him didn't have other children to tend to, neither one of us has enough practice at leaving him to remember to warn his caretakers that... well... Liam hasn't quite learned that "kisses don't use teeth" yet.  He's a very affectionate child, very outgoing and loves being around new people (of all ages, though he seems especially fascinated by other children).  And he's a kisser of late.  But he's also getting his first cuspid tooth and this type of tooth seems to be much more painful to grow in than the first eight.  I'm convinced that evolution knew what it was doing when it set the average age of this tooth coming in at around 16-17 months, when children are a bit more able to express themselves verbally.  My son isn't even 13 months old yet and this tooth has been trying to come in for going on two weeks now (I can see the white spot on his gum and feel the raised bump, but it still hasn't broken through the gum).  We are going through a LOT of tylenol and camomile tea (the tylenol makes less of a mess since he'll only take the tea from a cup or sport's bottle - tried it in a baby bottle several times, he rejects the bottle in preference to having the ability to spit mass quantities of liquid down his front when he drinks out of a straw instead).

Anyway, he actually MADE THIS POOR OTHER BABY BLEED! Liam bit his cheek and his nose.  I guess I should at least be thankful that the other baby is not a firstborn, the parents may have freaked more if he was (*I* would have freaked if I'd seen Liam looking like he'd just battled Mike Tyson, which is the appearance this poor kid has - BIG bite bruise on nose and cheek).  The other kid's father is a pediatrician so he's tending to him and they're not mad at us or anything, but I'm goingg to be really reluctant to leave Liam in the nursery again now.  I've been reluctant for a while and the staff kept thinking it was because I'm a nervous first-time mom that has separation issues from the baby (instead of him having separation issues from me), but seriously, it's always been because my kid is STRONG, determined and tends to be underestimated.  I've been worried something like this might happen if he wasn't getting one-on-one care, and it looks like today the nursery was quite full since we don't have Religious Education classes in the summer months, so they had all the younger kids, toddlers, and babies in one room with two teenagers and a couple other adults coming in when they weren't busy running things in the service.

I think I am going to keep an eye open for a couple more baby backpacks at the trift stores and such to donate to the church.  Because of renovations, we're not going to have Sunday School in the fall either (the santuary and classrooms are all being renovated - for the first time in like 40 years, so a lot of work).  Those nursery workers are going to have their hands full!