Night and Day

So let me just start with a week ago....Noah had an ear infection and had started antibiotics last Friday. He was really, really, (listen to me when I say really) cranky for the first couple of days he had it. (And I'm not complaining because I know how miserable he must have felt.) So last weekend, this is pretty much what I was looking at for 95 percent of the time he was awake...(I know, I know...I'm pretty sure it puts me in the category of "Bad Mother" to take a picture of my sick baby screaming like this, but at the end of that day, I was resorting to all kinds of drastic measures to amuse myself and keep my sanity.)

He literally cried all day until he would crawl up to me and pull up on my legs and make me hold him...at which point, this is the tear-streaked, desperate but somewhat happier face I would see...

But as soon as I would sit him back down, it was back to picture number one and the cycle would start over. Don't get me wrong, I love to cuddle with my little guy and even more, I love for him to crawl up to me and want me to pick him up, but after 4 days of this and the nonstop crying in between...I needed a break. And unfortunately, daddy was not an option. He didn't want anybody but his momma and if I'd hand him over to Jeff, he'd throw his head back pitifully and wail until he handed him back to me. Even his new favorite activity, get-out-of-the-bath-and-crawl-around-the-house-naked, was no fun once he realized he'd only succeeded in escaping from the bathroom where mom was.

And since he'd hadn't done this nearly as much with his last ear infections, and he had been on antibiotics for about 4 days at this point, I thought surely he was feeling better and maybe this was just a new clingy phase he was going through. And boy was I hoping this phase would not last too long. I'd started dreaming up ideas of how I'd be able to dress Jeff up to look like me...maybe we could fool him for an hour or two? No, I think he'd figure that out. I finally realized I'd just have to get used to doing all my cooking, cleaning, eating, showering, going to the bathroom, breathing....with Noah in tow. Well, evidently he was just not feeling good at all, because by Wednesday of this week, he was back to his old self! Can I get a Hallelujah! He's such a good and happy baby normally. So when he deviates from that angelic behavior, we know something is wrong with him. He's back to his normal, happy, giggling, exploring, smiling and most importantly, non-clingy self!

This is the face I now see every day....

The difference is like night and day. And even in the worst of his screaming fits, I loved him more than ever and would never ever dream of being mad or annoyed with him for crying, even if he was like that for the rest of his life.....but I sure do prefer the happy Noah if given a choice. ;)