SCENE ONE:
In Target, early Saturday afternoon, I am rushing around trying to buy supplies to finish painting the magnetic strip in Alex's room on Dave's only day off from work. Genoa's nap time is looming and she does NOT want to be in the shopping cart, so she is SCREAMING every time I look at her, or if I touch her, or if Alex looks at her, or if Alex touches her. Ditto for if we WON'T look at her or touch her. She sounds like evil personified. Amplified.
THREE different people stop me to see what is wrong with her. I say, "She doesn't want to be in the cart." It seems so OBVIOUS to me, but there's no way I'm letting her down. She won't let me hold her and if I let her get out and run around, we'll NEVER finish shopping and it will make it that much worse when I have to strap her back in again to go through the check out line. Not to mention the fact that her shoes are in the car. The child HATES shoes, so I rarely make her wear them, especially if I know she won't be walking around.
Basically, my strategy is to GET OUT OF TARGET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. In other words, people need to leave me alone and let me finish racing through the aisles so I can get the screamer back to the car. Finally, as she's screaming her way through the check-out lane, the manager approaches us and starts to chat her up. "Why is this pretty baby so unhappy?!?" I know she is trying to be helpful, but I can't help but feel judged. Genoa so often sounds mortally wounded when really, she's just pissed off. If you've never HAD a Screamer, you think awful thoughts about why those parents aren't doing anything to shut that baby up! In reality, I let her scream mainly because I want her to learn that she doesn't get what she wants when she screams.
SCENE TWO:
Genoa is notorious for her absolute distaste for music of any kind. I know! A baby who hates music! Who knew! But seriously, as soon as she could communicate by shaking her head side to side, she would shake it VIOLENTLY if I tried to sing to her or if I put the radio on in the car. We've tried everything - kid music, jazz, classical, the dump truck CD Alex loves so much, the Cars Soundtrack, EVERYTHING - she hates all of it. One of our favorite ways to get a laugh these days is to start singing the theme to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. "Turtles in a half shell and they're Gre-ee-een." She screams, "NOOOOOO!" every time.
So yesterday on our way to Portland, I decide to put the radio on. I'm still trying to find some local stations that I like (it seems like 8 out of 10 stations here are Christian or Country, which doesn't leave me much to chose from), so I often settle on the classic rock station. Forgetting that I'd put the radio on the night before on my drive home from working late at the house, when I turn the radio on, it's loud and AC/DC is blasting.
"It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n roll..."
I sneak a peek in the rear view and my baby is rocking out - big grin on her face, banging her head, LOVING it. Apparently, she doesn't hate music, she just hates that pansy crap we expected her to like. I'm so tickled by this realization that I can't stop laughing. I can't wait to break out all my old junior high favorites!
SCENE THREE:
Over the last month or so, I've slowly accepted the idea that Genoa is probably never going to be a good sleeper. I've given up. She wins. Every night we sleep together on an air mattress on her bedroom floor. When we move into the house on Saturday,we're not even going to bother setting up the crib; we're just going to buy a full-size mattress, so we can continue to sleep together on the floor. Maybe eventually she'll sleep through the night alone, but at least I'll be comfortable sleeping with her until then.
So early this morning when it's still dark, Genoa wakes up to nurse and then immediately rolls over and falls back asleep. A few moments later, she screams, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" as loud as I've ever heard her and before the word is all the way out of her mouth, she's instantly asleep again. Of course I'm wide awake.
There's no shortage of surprises with this one.