A crying baby can be distressing.
Clara's recent visit with her baby cousin Anna illustrated this sentiment well. Anna was crying in her room, trying to get down for a nap, and we were all listening to her on the monitor to make sure that happened in a timely fashion. Meanwhile, Clara wandered around, apparently distressed by the crying, unable to get on with her play, and periodically whining and searching around in the vicinity of the monitor for the baby. As this process continued, Clara eventually identified the monitor as the noisy culprit... and proceeded to deposit it decisively in the trash can.
Then, last night, after a long, hard afternoon of playing at the Magic House and eating at Fitz's, Clara and her one-year-old buddy Zoe were clearly overtired. On the 25 minute drive home, Zoe expressed her fussiness in periodic shouts of discontent, while Clara furiously sucked her thumb and twirled her hair, brow furrowed. After about 10 minutes of unsuccessful attempts to quiet Zoe, she let out another shout, and Clara lost it. Her body was racked inconsolably with sobs. After several rounds of singing songs and rubbing her leg and holding her hands, she calmed down. No sooner than we all breathed a sigh of relief, Zoe let out yet another shout, and Clara melted down once again. This same cycle repeated itself the rest of the way, with the final shout-meltdown combo producing the most forlorn plea I've heard. Through the tears Clara shook her head, and through her tears sobbed "no mo! no mo! no mo! no mo!"
It gave us all a good laugh in the midst of a stressful circumstance. Thankfully we were almost home, so there was to be "no mo." And, what's more, once Zoe and Clara were out of the car, diapers changed, pj's on, milks in hand, they decided they liked each other again. All's well that ends well!
Poor Clara's in for some rude life changes in only a few months now.
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