Noooo! Not Bedtime!!!!

The oddest thing happened tonight. Gavin's mood got progressively better as the night wore on. He kept looking at me and Ryan with those blue, blue eyes and giving his cute open mouth two teeth smile. Then he would laugh. Smile, laugh, smile, laugh. There isn't a better sound in the world than his laughter. Not even the sound of the ice-cream truck or the dog's dream barking come close.

Of course all good things must come to an end. A switch flipped and then there was crying and screaming and tears. His cute smiles turned into cute scowls; I don't think his intention was for his frown and furrowed forehead to be cute but he just can't help himself.

I gathered my grumpy baby and had him say goodnight to Ryan and went into his bedroom. By this point he quit crying but I wasn't fooled. He was still tired. I kissed his sweet little head and cheeks then laid him down in his crib.


KABOOM


Did you know going to bed is the end of the world? Yes. The end. At least that is what Gavin told me in no uncertain terms. I stood by his crib and gently patted his belly (he sleeps on his tummy now but he kept flipping over onto his back in protest) because he didn't give me a chance to pat his back.


I do believe I witnessed Gavin's first temper tantrum. It was, of course, so cute that I just laughed. Then I stifled my snickering and tried to talk to him in calm, soothing tones.


What does a tantrum look like from an 8 month old? Besides screaming, the kind of screaming that hurts your ears - I've been to concerts that didn't hurt my ears as much as his ear piercing screams, he was arching his back, kicking his feet and whaling his arms and fists against the mattress. But like other white hot fires he burned up his fuel fast and quit the scream fest in just a few minutes. I stood by his crib and rubbed his back for about 10 minutes before he finally fell asleep. He didn't wake again until 3 am. It's always a good night when he only wakes up once. I don't think there was ever a time when I thought that there would be a time that I would be happy to wake up at 3 am. It's probably not so much that I'm happy to wake up at 3 am but I'm happy that I wasn't up at midnight and 2 am before that and know that I would be up again at 4 or 5 am.