The Brattons

Yesterday went something like this:
1) Feed child.
2) Place child in his bed in an attempt to shower. Fail.
3) Place child in his swing in attempt to shower. Looks mildly promising. Proceed to shower.
4) Emerge from shower to the sounds of my very upset maroon-faced child.
5) Comfort traumatized, abandonment complex child for the remainder of the day. For serious. He wouldn't let me put him down unless I was completely visible at all times.

When Ben came home I let him take over for a while. Then after his finger had been sucked clean off his hand he decided that enough was enough. Fussy child had to hang out in the swing. Once the swing had been fully informed of the child's grievances we fed him again, and this time he was actually tired enough to sleep. But not in the bed. And not in the swing. And not in someone's lap. Only a shoulder would do.

Eating Dad's fingers.

	Sleeping on Dad's shoulder.

Discovery #1: He doesn't dislike his bed. He just dislikes the feel of the changing mat we were laying him on top of in his bed. We took it out and laid him down right on the mattress and instead of immediate protestation he began cooing and performing the Thriller dance.

Uncomfortable changing pad. But the cause of distress in this picture is that one of his arms came out of the swaddle. Ben and I refer to this phenomenon as 'Trogdoring.' Daniel does not like it when he trogdors. But now he doesn't like being swaddled in the first place. Or lying on that changing mat.

Thriller dance of Victory.

Discovery #2: He likes looking at pictures. I knew there were black and white pictures made especially for babies, so I googled them and printed some on photo paper. This morning after feeding him I laid him in his bed and set a few up against the edge for him. He stared and stared and then fell asleep. I was able to shower, eat, and type this blog post. All because of the glorious victory of the not-changing-pad bed surface, and the pictures I printed. Huzzah!

"The happy man went to Target and bought a chess set."

Please don't tell me that it's dangerous to put photograph paper in my child's bed. Because I might cry.