Toddler blues
Henry's in a pretty lousy mood today. He was all right until about 10:30 this morning, when he decided the world (specificly, everything that was going on in our house) was against him so in response he started to cry. And he carried on crying: while I put his shoes on; while we walked down our front path; while we crossed the street; while he picked a dandelion; for the entire three block walk to the park. It reminded me of that scene in "There's Something About Mary" where Ben Stiller thinks he's lost the woman he loves, and he's walking down the street sobbing hysterically. Miraculously, as soon as we got to the park, he became rather chipper an spent the next hour and fifteen minutes happily running around the place in circles. One of his favorite rituals at the park is picking up the wood chips (The areas around the playsets are filled with mulch/wood chips.) that have migrated onto the sidewalk and throwing them back where they belong. I think he gets that from me because whenever we go to this particular park I'm overwhelmed with the desire to sweep the sidewalks. Sometime soon I'm going to sneak over there with a broom and work a little magic under the cover of darkness.
The crying began again as soon as we got back to our house. Henry mashed his face against my legs and bawled on the front porch for a while, then he cried inside while I washed his hands and face, then he cried over a pear. He stopped crying for lunch, then started back up again while he plucked what was undoubtedly the "Toddler Blues" on Dave's banjo. Now he's upstairs, tucked away in bed for a nap that's taking place ~ an hour and a half earlier than usual. Is it too early for a mint julep?