Random Act of Fruiting

My sweet Charley is going through a very frustrating phase of life. He knows what he wants but can't always say it. He understands "no" and discipline but gets very mad and frustrated about it. I suspect that when he has a few more words, things will smooth over a bit.

But in the past week or so he's been especially loud and cranky....screaming before naptime and at diaper changes, screaming at meal times when he sees something he doesn't like and SCREAMING (not crying) in the middle of the night.

I blame his teeth. Jeremy tilted his head back the other day and got a good look deep inside to confirm that he is working on his two year molars.

If in doubt blame the teeth.

Teething turns ordinary babies into tiny demons.

I feel for the poor guy, especially at night. Usually when he screams in the night I go give him some tylenol, a good long cuddle and lay him back down and for the most part that soothes him but not always. Sometimes he just has to cry it out until the meds kick in. If he were still nursing, I'd go stick a boob in his mouth but outside of that there's not much I can do that doesn't break my resolve for proper sleep training.

Back to my story. Today Charley and I dropped Tessa off at preschool and headed to the grocery store (read Target because mommy also wanted a Starbucks coffee). When I strapped Charley into the cart he got very mad....like scream his head off mad.

I got him a free cookie from the Target bakery and reminded him that he was not getting out of his seat. He screamed, he cried, he laid his hands on his head and fawned in desperation.

I was actively ignoring him and continuing to shop. I had every intention of leaving him in the seat and finishing my shopping trip. We needed food, and I'm the only person currently around and able to go retrieve it.

When you have a screaming baby in a store you get a mix of reactions. Moms will nod and smile. They know exactly what you're going through. Moms who have kids with them also don't even hear it. As long as it's not theirs, it doesn't register. Non-parents and men are a little less understanding. They walk quickly in the other direction or pretend to ignore the screams altogether.

The parent of the screamer usually stays strong, nodding in apology to sideways glances. I usually try to repeat myself not only for Charley's sake but for theirs.....'no you may not get out of your seat'.

Why not just let him free? Because I am incapable of shopping and chasing a toddler at the same time. If you can do it, kudos to you. I can't.

Charley had for the most part given up, and was working on his free cookie, giving a few intermittent cries for good measure. Then a lady approached us and told me that she had bought Charley a banana and would like him to have it.

She gave me the banana and receipt. She hadn't even started shopping yet, but had gone through the checkout to buy only the banana for him.

I felt guilty because he didn't even want it after eating his cookie, but she told us to keep it anyway. She thought it would make him happy.

What an awesome act of kindness. I was so taken back by her action that I fear I didn't even properly thank her or introduce myself. I hope she could tell by the look on my face that I was grateful.

When I got in the car I took a second to thank God for such a caring lady and asked Him to bless her in the way she blessed me. I'm hoping in the future I will remember to 'pay it forward' myself, maybe to a desperate looking fellow mom.

Charley fell asleep about 3 minutes into our car ride home, before he had even had any lunch. Growing teeth and screaming bloody murder had exhausted him.