The devil inside
Our sunny, curly-haired minx has been replaced by a ball of sniveling, whining, screaming snot and needy-ness. She has found the perfect pitch to strip away any patience, compassion or maturity I might have. I like to think that I am a warm, loving mom, but faced with what appears to be just bad attitude gone bad, my maternal instinct runs screaming for the hills. And I've had the urge to follow that instinct during several bouts of super-sized tantrums. Maybe she's still sick? And I've just been at my wits end.
This morning at 3:30 we were awakened to mumbly sobbing. Nothing I did or said could diminish only aggravate the distress. Sometimes you have to let them just cry, never an easy choice and in this case not the right one either. I remember laying there in bed, waiting for her to calm down just SEETHING. Doesn't exaclty put me in the right place to placate, so to speak. 15 minutes later, Ruby demanded to be in the guest room bed with me. 15 minutes later, cartoon demands. ah. finally, a little quiet a little snooze only to be snapped awake by the shrieking demands of an unhappy tyrant. Rather than starting off with reasonable requests we had jumped to defcon 400.
Richard took a turn at this point and I tried to go upstairs to stuff my head under a pillow, only to return to the fray when sleep was impossible with all the shrieking. Finally, shot in the dark we'll try some ibuprofen. hmm. Maybe it's not pissiness but ear infection? More cartoons (thank GOD for cable OnDemand!) with blanket and pillow in the big living room chair and 45 minutes later I wake up on the couch to the cartoon being over and now that old Dudley Moore movie "Arthur 2" running. Reprieve?
Just when you think you know what you're doing and you get an abject lesson of screwing it up. *sigh*. We'll take her to the doctor and get some confirmation. Maybe our instincts just aren't good in the middle of the night. yeah. That's it.
