15th Day, 12th Moon, Year of the Hare (Azulon 64)
Su-Lin's little construct of leather and silk is working like a charm. Every evening, I soak it in water and leave it on my balcony railing, and by morning it is nearly frozen and stays cold for hours while Zuko chews and sucks on it. His mouth must be hurting him quite a lot, because he does little else between nursings. The spot beside his tooth is red and hard where its neighbor is pushing through, and I expect to see it any day now.
Now that his teeth are coming in, I have begun to give him small amounts of solid food. It was Su-Lin who reminded me that it would be needed; there is so much about mothering that I still do not know! Once a day, she mashes a little rice and fruit together with warm water, and then we argue with Zuko over whether or not he'll eat it. He seems to like the taste, but he is unused to this way of eating, so he does a fair amount of arguing with himself over the matter as well. Thus he ends up swallowing about half of it, and spitting or throwing the rest around the immediate area. The laundry staff must be getting quite sick of hearing from me!