Here Comes Trouble

This morning the woman at the coffee shop was laughing and playing with Luke and she said, "What a happy baby! Is he always like this?" I wished I could say yes.

Yesterday, for the first time, there was some question as to whether or not we would keep Luke. He was such a pain in the rear that I actually looked for his original receipt to see if we could do an exchange. Where'd my happy, polite baby go? Suddenly I have this crazy thrashing deranged monkey instead of Luke!

Derek came home last night and lay down on the floor, exhausted after going to the gym. "I am tired too", I said in an understanding way. "Why are you tired?" he asked.

This was my entire day: Luke cried and smashed his face into the floor if I took something away from him that he shouldn't have. He went back over and over again to things that I told him not to play with. He stood at the kitchen counter and screamed when I put the TV remote up on the counter out of his reach. He stood at the corner of his crib and shouted for forty-five minutes at nap-time. He swatted a cup of water out of my hand onto Grandma's floor, and later he swatted the sweet potato out of my hand and across the room. He whined and complained and got into the dog's water bowl, and soaked his pants. He tried to grab the oven door when I put the casserole in for dinner, and when I put him in the living room and ran back to the kitchen to finish dinner he shouted and followed right on my heels and again tried to grab the hot oven door! When I tried to soothe him after his crying he arched his back and smashed his head into my sternum. When I tried to change his diaper he cried and arched his back and rolled over on the change table in his own poop. The only thing that seemed to help was when I walked outside into the brisk breeze. He quieted right down and looked around, peaceful for the first time all day. That was until I turned around to go back into the house. Then all hell broke loose...again.