I don’t know what’s up with Noah. He had a rotten day, at least the parts of it that I saw.

He woke up at 5:30 am and was hysterical within 2 minutes. He did not want his wet diaper or wet pjs removed. (Too bad.) (I compromised on the shirt, which was only slightly damp at the bottom hem.)

Then, he didn’t want to go downstairs. Or stay upstairs. Or have apple juice. Or toast. Or an apple. Or play with choo-choos. Or watch choo-choos. Or put on shoes. Or go to school. Or get out of the car when we got to school. Or sit down for breakfast when we got to the classroom.

Every one of those things took between 2 and 5 times longer than usual. And half were accompanied by screaming and crying, while the other half just generated repeated yelling of, “No no no no no no no.” There were also many sobbing requests to nurse. (Honored, with conflicting feelings on my end. But seriously? You would have to have had a heart of stone to say no.)

Then this evening, it was more of the same.

We got home from day care and Noah did not want to go inside. Or go for a walk. Or a ride in his stroller that was longer than 1 minute. Or ride his trike for more than 30 seconds. Or put his shoe back on. Or take his other shoe off. Or eat dinner. Or watch choo-choo. Or have the tv off.

In fact, Noah actually “persuaded” us to eat dinner outside. In the front yard. And the street. Which is hard when dinner is pasta with vegetables.

When we finally came back in, Noah screamed for a solid 10 minutes. He vigorously fought having his shirt, shorts, and diaper removed, having a new diaper put on, having pjs put on, and having baby tylenol squirted down his throat.

After I took him down from his changing table, he bounced like a jumping bean trying — with total futility — to get back up on top of it. So I put him back, whereupon he lay down face down, still screaming, and tried to bat me away so I wouldn’t comfort him any more.

Eventually, Jill had the brilliant idea of reading me the airplane book, which slowly distracted Noah and got him to stop screaming. But when she offered him the book, he threw it across the room.

Did I mention that Noah hit me 3 times over the course of this evening’s adventure?

Before he could get hysterical again, I settled him into my lap to nurse, and Noah did continue to calm down and eventually fell asleep.

Personally, I feel that this picture captures my feelings about the evening. But it needs a caption!

caption me

Leave a comment with your caption by 9 pm EDT on Friday, and I will send you a fabulous prize consisting of either the best toy I see at this weekend’s awesome consignment sale, aterrific article of children’s clothing from the same sale, a book I love, or maybe even all of the above.

If you have kids, tell me approximate ages/sizes and if there are any kinds of toys they (or you) either love or hate. Those links are the things I found at this particular sale last spring. If you don’t have kids, I will try to come up with something else entertaining to use as a prize.