Cranky Night
It was a cranky night tonight. I was playing with Baby Dog in the living room, letting her unpack Mama Dog’s new (from a garage sale) Timbuk2 bike messenger bag and inspect the contents therein (an activity not only endorsed but suggested by Mama Dog, I hasten to point out) when she burst into apparently sourceless tears. Very puzzling. Bag rummaging is the sort of activity that normally entertains her indefinitely. Moments later, on a pass through the kitchen, she spotted the Magna Doodle and, against my sounder judgement, I let her play with it. Mama Dog and I have kept this particular toy carefully out of sight and reach for some time because the pen-on-a-rope aspect gives us the willies. She (Baby Dog) could put her eye out with that thing. On top of that, it (the Magna Doodle) hasn’t really worked right since Mama Dog cleaned it by running it under water. This is something she (Mama Dog) has an unfortunate tendency to do. The Magna Doodle, the car keys, the vibrating teether, some Christmas gift toy that had a service life of fifteen minutes from opening the package to being briskly washed of baby spittle—all have met the Wrath of the Tap. In the case of the Magna Doodle, the doodling part works okay, but the press-a-button sounds have become downright creepy. They used to say things like “Press a button! That’s the letter B! Yaaaaaay!” now it just makes an hysterical gabble that sounds like it was sent back in time from some post-apocalyptic future to warn is not to let Arnold be President. It also sounds strangely like it might play “Helter Skelter” if we could figure out a way to run it backwards. Anyway, Baby Dog played happily with the Magna Doodle for a while under my close parental supervision. The problem was, I was so intent on troubleshooting the stylus that I didn’t see the Doodle itself as a threat until she bonked herself in the face with it. She barely touched her nose, but it was enough to set her off on a crying fit. As luck would have it, Mama Dog called us to dinner just then. I tried to get Baby Dog calmed down by plying her with the usual series of distractions – “Look! The door! You can touch it!” – but she was still teary eyes when I set her in the high chair and was discontented throughout our meal. Part of the problem might have been that it was our meal, not hers – she had already supped – but still, she had a snack in front of her. It’s very unusual for our little girl to remain unhappy when food is in easy reach.
After supper, Mama Dog took Doggy Dog for a walk and I gave Baby Dog a bath. This is another of her favourite activities, and is usually characterised by gleeful aquatic frolicsomeness. There was a certain measure of intermittently aquatic frolicsomeness, but again it was diluted by bouts of fussiness and outright crankery. She didn’t even seem to care about playing with the rubber ducky.
Mama Dog came home and had at her disposal (to the relief of all) just what the baby ordered. Baby Dog fell asleep right away after nursing, something she hasn’t done in days. The poor girl must have been dog tired all evening, and was displaying her fatigue through crankiness. Mama Dog pointed out that Baby had been getting up later and later through the weekend, but today we snapped back to a 6:30 rising time. It was a long day. There have been many schedule changes over the last couple of weeks, and they seem to have taken a toll. It looks like she’s sleeping well tonight, though. After a night’s sleep, she’s sure to be her usual cheerful morning person self. Here’s hoping this will bring about a return to norbalcy.
After supper, Mama Dog took Doggy Dog for a walk and I gave Baby Dog a bath. This is another of her favourite activities, and is usually characterised by gleeful aquatic frolicsomeness. There was a certain measure of intermittently aquatic frolicsomeness, but again it was diluted by bouts of fussiness and outright crankery. She didn’t even seem to care about playing with the rubber ducky.
Mama Dog came home and had at her disposal (to the relief of all) just what the baby ordered. Baby Dog fell asleep right away after nursing, something she hasn’t done in days. The poor girl must have been dog tired all evening, and was displaying her fatigue through crankiness. Mama Dog pointed out that Baby had been getting up later and later through the weekend, but today we snapped back to a 6:30 rising time. It was a long day. There have been many schedule changes over the last couple of weeks, and they seem to have taken a toll. It looks like she’s sleeping well tonight, though. After a night’s sleep, she’s sure to be her usual cheerful morning person self. Here’s hoping this will bring about a return to norbalcy.
posted by PapaDogDuvalier | 11:38 PM
1 Comments:
Hope last night went better!
Sometimes you just can't make them happy. That's when we have lap time - fun on the lap because ANY separation causes anxiety-driven crankiness. Tyler's a nurse-to-sleep kind of guy at night, too. And sometimes, that's all he wants.
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