Showdown

I babysat the kids yesterday for 8 hours. Nathaniel was a good boy, but Ayva almost broke me!

She has a limited vocabulary - Papa, Dora, Jessie, Amma, Daddy - so when she needs something she barks, screams or cries. Yesterday she specialized in crying. I changed her diaper, gave her a bottle, fed her (don't toddlers like pizza?), wiped her nose, washed her face, put on a new outfit, but no matter what I did she cried...and cried...and cried.

Most of the time I couldn't find anything wrong with her, so the wailing was catching me by surprise. It was like seeing the oil warning light on in the car, but the dip stick always read full.

"Diaper is dry, that's not it! Okay, so you want the bottle? (Ayva throws the bottle) No, you don't want the bottle. Want Papa to change the TV to Telly Tubbies? Papa doesn't really need to watch the NBA All-Star Game if it makes you cry."

There was no relief in sight. Figuring out the Davinci Code was easier. What was baffling to me was Ayva didn't even do any warm ups if she was unhappy (and she was unhappy). She'd squeeze the eyes real hard and jump right into a blood curdling cry - no whimpering or sobbing but a full throttle scream that she'd turn on and off like a water faucet.

I put her down for a nap at one point figuring she was tired. She slept for almost 2 hours, but when she got up she started in all over again. After 30 minutes of trying to reason with her I put her back in bed and told her if she'd stop crying she could stay up. She looked me straight in the eyes and started wailing.

Relegated to being behind bars in the crib, she cried - 20 minutes straight of wah, wah, wah at the top of her lungs. When I went in to ask if she had had enough she stopped on a dime - she hadn't squeezed out a single tear - all dry heaves. I took her out of the crib.

"Okay, you won today, Ayva. But you better bring something better than that tomorrow - I'm not going to be beat by a 1 year old!"

Julie came home about an hour later, "How is everyone? Ayva looks like she's been crying."

"Crying? She wouldn't stop crying! I changed her diaper, changed her clothes, fed her a bottle, gave her food, made funny faces, tried different TV shows, gave her hugs and kisses, put her to sleep...you name it."

"Did you check her gums?" Julie asked while poking a finger into Ayva's mouth.

"What?"

"Yup, that's her problem. She's teething something awful the poor little thing. Grab me a cold cloth and the baby Orajel."