Rainy, fussy Saturday

This morning Madeline was in a good mood. Just the slightest bit of attention would provoke a smile. We read books together, and she was quite interested in the material printed on the pages. A quality knuckle to gnaw on would send her a step or two beyond happy.

By afternoon, however, her mood had turned. Fuss, fuss, flail prevailed over smiles. Shouts snuck out between knuckle-gnaws.

Summer managed to provoke a period of quiet thoughtfulness by stepping out onto our front porch to watch the rain.

Quiet thoughtfulness gave way to inexhaustible energy. Sometimes Madeline can expend a significant amount of that inexhaustible energy on a blanket strewn with toys. Today, though, she looked at me as if to say sarcastically, "Yeah, right."

Then she punched away the plush bunny for emphasis.

Tummy time didn't work either. For a while Madeline expressed her discontent only intermittently. She picked up the tempo over dinner. And by dark we were dealing with more or less constant wails. Doing bicycle kicks while singing along to Queen's "Bicycle Race" helped for a moment, but mostly this was the scene:

(Note the jersey: for some time now I've been following the Portland Trail Blazers, who pulled off a huge comeback win to tie their playoff series tonight!)

Madeline's diaper was clean, her belly full, and her temperature totally normal. Seems like the issue was either teething (lots of drool these days) or growing pains.

I finally was able to dance her to sleep. She woke back up for a calm and easy bed time, though she still (around 10) isn't down for good yet. Time to try the wind-up dog again...