Tuesday, October 19, 2004

MMMMMMM Is For Mad!

The first couple of days that Justin was here, Ruby was a playful and fun baby. Last night and today however, Ruby has been a loud and angry baby. She lets us know how mad she is by repeating the mmmmm sound louder and louder, frothing from the sides of her clenched lips and opening and closing her fists tight, until she screeches out like fingernails on a chalkboard or an angry murder of crows.

We met Couch for lunch today, and we were early. We walked through a nearby mall to kill some time, and Ruby was practicing her manic screech. Park Lane Mall is now a dying relic of Eighties commerce. When Justin and I were kids, it was the mall where all of the slackers-to-be hung out trying to look cool and passing time whilst waiting for the ability to drive. There were a couple of record stores, a bookstore in which Jim E. worked for almost a decade, and several toy/videogame/novelty outlets. Sears and Weinstocks served as anchor stores. Today, all of the normal stores are gone, and it is full of shops that remind passers by of Ned Flanders’ Leftorium or the Dirt Mall in Mallrats. There are many discount import outlet stores, and if you are in the market for a calandar, a bead curtain, or a cheap Samurai sword replica, then Park Lane is the place for you. As we sauntered past the slot car warehouse (where I bought Dan a gift certificate for his birthday, and we still haven’t gone) and the storm door/window store, Ruby’s screech actually caused the clerks to come out and make sure everything was OK. Ruby smiled at them and shrieked some more, and they went back into their places of employment. No customers were alarmed, because Park Lane is always completely devoid of customers.

The past couple of days have been rough on the kid because they have disrupted her routine. Ruby would love the military, because they do the same thing every day. Ruby doesn’t believe that variety is the spice of life, or at the very least, she doesn’t like her life spicy. Ani took a couple of days off so that I could get immunized for school, we could get a few things done around the house, and we could check out the local day care scene. All those errands combined with having a houseguest made Ruby go from her manically happy state to her twitchy writhing angry state and back again many times. Cory and Davion told me that a rigid schedule was the key to parental happiness, and I we are stubbornly learning these lessons the hard way. Poor Justin now knows what a parental sleepless night is like.

I hope we are back into our routine tonight. Ruby got to eat at the usual time.

She is a gross eater, and got sqaush and carrots all over her favorite warm overalls (Thanks Sara) so she got her usual bath right afterwards.

And then she fell asleep.

The house is quiet, and I hope it stays that way for a little while.