Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Babysitting

Crying, whining, screaming, complaining... and, finally, laughing.  Some look at the long day behind us and wonder that I go on with it without complaint myself.  Some may shake their heads incredulously when they see me pick up and cuddle a baby with a tantrum.  Many don't understand how I can respond in frustration and stress, but still smile when it's all over and say I loved it.

Truly, it's not hard to understand.  I am surrounded by the tantrums of more "mature" people and they are much more difficult to handle.  Although young adults and adults don't usually kick or scream, their tantrums are far more complicated and are usually not as short.  A child may kick and scream, but if you hold him and patiently wait out his frustration, he is soon comforted, and he likes you the better for it.

Even when a toddler is most annoyingly crying for no obvious reason, or if you have scolded him and he cries, you hold him and he feels he is not abandoned or hated, and he is more likely to recover quickly.  Or so has been my experience.

My god brother calls me "Mumma!" and quite frankly wishes I could give him what only his mother can - but I cannot.  He is about one and half years old and he loves to spend his time with me - or rather, he loves to spend my time with him.  He wants to watch as I dice onions for dinner or mix cookie dough (you ought to have seen him as he proudly handed me bits of onion to add to the pot), he wants to sit in my lap when he's exhausted and on the verge of falling asleep, and he wants to hold my bracelet up to my ear and prompt me, "Heeello!" (although he'd rather use a phone or remote if he can get his hands on one).

He was quite cranky today, since his mother was away all day and he often falls asleep while nursing.  Although he made it clear he wanted to both nurse and take a nap, he was unable to nurse and so did not nap.  But whenever he was on the verge of crashing, I picked him up and held him until a new delight took hold of his mind.  Then he would point, saying, "Coo, boo," and all manner of other noises.

Finally, it was somewhere between nine and half-past when he sat contentedly on my lap.  I should have noticed the signs, but perhaps I was too tired myself to interpret them.  He was cheerful and merry, and had lots of those big grins to offer me, the peanut.  He volunteered for a diaper change, and then we sat on the couch together, playing with the radio.  He loved pressing the buttons and hearing the result.  Sometimes he wasn't happy with the result and he'd give the power to me to fix it.  I should have been surprised when he gave it to me and didn't want it back.  He was getting restless, but he never once got off my lap.  Then, it was rather sudden.  He was somehow lying on his stomach across my lap with his cheek pressed against the cushion.  He lay there a moment and I watched his eyes flutter.  At first this meant nothing.  How often he seemed to do that so that I didn't expect much.  But then his eyes got heavier.  I kept rubbing his back and soon, the first snore.

He won't fall asleep on just anyone, and that makes all the patience and effort and time worth it - just seeing him cling to me whenever he's at his weakest.

~Meggy

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