Norah's Hygiene Is Called into Question

Earlier today, Norah was fussy. It tends to happen with fair regularity these days because, for some reason, she won't take decent naps for me. For the last two weeks, I'm lucky if I can get her to stay down for forty-five minutes--which, in terms of "me time" barely even registers, in case anyone was wondering, but that's beside the point.

To combat her ennui today, as most days, I ran her through the usual cycle of different changes of scenery--her "gym," the floor, my lap, the floor again, the floor again (in a slightly different part of the room), her gym, and finally her Johnny Jump Up. I always go to the Jump Up last because it's kind of a pain in the butt to get her in and out of. Whoever would have thought that a glorified crotch support suspended by a strap would be difficult to hold still while maneuvering a squirming infant into it? Obviously not the contraption's designers. And it's just as difficult to get her out of, mostly because her softball sized thighs (no, I'm not exaggerating, they are that big) don't like coming out of the leg holes). Usually we end up a tangled mess and one or both of us are close to tears.

But I go to it when nothing else seems to be pleasing her and the various parts of the floor are failing to offer her sufficient distraction.

While she was bouncing away in there, Gabe grabbed his blankie, wrapped himself around the straps of the Jump Up, and started jumping up and down with her. Which she absolutely loved. Then, for reasons only his mind could comprehend, he held his blankie up like a curtain around the outside of the straps and started saying, "Take a shower, baby!" while they continued to jump.

I managed to get a video of him sort of doing it. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I feel as though I should admit that this video was fabricated. By the time I went into the office, pulled the memory card out of the reader, put it in the camera, and made it back into the dining room, he was done with the game. So I asked him to do it again. And he did, so we're taking some strides in the right direction as far as our director/actor relationship goes, but the recreation seems to be lacking an "organic" feel. It feels a little forced. And to top it off, he was more interested in SEEING himself in the video afterwards than he was in actually putting on a good performance. Such an ego. So we have a few hurdles still to overcome, but I suppose there's time. By my figuring, he's still got a good year or so of training before he can be a replacement child for one of those add-on kids they throw into sitcoms that start out as a baby then, inexplicably, a few months later, they are nearly ready for kindergarten (I seem to recall this happening in Family Ties, the Cosby Show, and in the soap opera mom used to watch when we were growing up--though the soap opera one-upped it by advancing the child into her teen-aged years--but I'm sure there are other examples). It's good to have goals.