Today Monkey & I lunched with one of my best girl friends. Monkey is & always has been really good for the past (almost) 6 months, so I guess the time had come for him to surprise me. & by surprise, I mean fluster the hell out of me.
We had just sat down & I strapped Monkey in the highchair & was ready to start talking it up with my friend. Before I could get one freakin’ word out of my mouth, I heard screaming.
Piercing screaming, I tell you. It was like something was seriously wrong with the kid, hence the bloody murder scream.
Naturally I freaked the f*ck out because, well, my kid never screams like this & I couldn’t figure out why he was screaming. & then it stopped & a big smile began to grace his face. Of course it did.
Whew. I took a deep breathe & just figured that it was a fluke. Like he does at home. You know, the one that I always encourage because I think he’s “finding his voice, exploring, & playing with it” while Tarzan tells me not to . Obviously, Tarzan has been clued in more.
Back to lunch – The screaming was anything but a fluke. He just kept on doing it. & the stares kept coming my way. I’m guessing that the people that were staring were kid-less because they should have looked with sympathy at me instead of utter annoyance. One lady kept looking at me with the rudest looks & I even mouthed “sorry” to her after Monkey would scream.
So the screams didn’t last long, but they were certainly long enough to make me want to hide under the table. & naturally so many things were going through my head, mainly like what the hell do should I do?! I took Monkey out of the highchair & decided to hold him. Maybe, just maybe, that was the problem… You know, that he hated being in the highchair.
Wrong.
The same damn screams happened two more times. The only thing that I can think of was that Monkey was overtired. He had been fed, changed, & had toys to play with. I don’t feel any teeth, so I don’t know about the whole teething thing.
Whatever the reason was, I know two things. One is that I will try not to encourage him to scream so much because, frankly, it can send shivers down my spine. And the next thing I know is that my girl friend is not any closer to wanting to have a baby. If anything, Monkey’s fussiness today provided awesome birth control for her.
You might also want to read:
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- Something like 60% of married people get divorced after having a child
- Father/Child Outings: Does it happen often?
- 6 weeks pregnant: Hair everywhere… Oh, great.
= a post from Mommy Jane 
= a post from Daddy Tarzan
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
My son has recently started the ear piercing screams too. Luckily we haven’t been out and about when he’s been in the screeching mood, but they are definitely headache-inducing. My sympathies!!!
Can’t have it good all the time….my niece is 6 months old and will not go to anyone but mum and dad. Its stressful on them because they can’t leave her with anyone to pop out for a quiet evening.
Last time I babysat her I had her screeching for three hours. Poor wee thing. My heart broke for her.
Welcome to the “recognise the face” stage.
it happens to all of us we were at my brother in laws house last weekend for my FIL’s birthday and she cried to much and refused to even go to daddy
dont stress about it thou. I am lunching a with an old friend on Thursday and we will both have our 5 month old babies there one of them is bound to play up but what can you do not much
oh my, this has happened to me twice with my 3 month old. of course, it was while i was in a department store shopping lol. it was the worst, i was getting the annoyed looks and the sympathetic ones and NOTHING i did would help. i had to flee out of the store like a mad woman. my mother told me he was just having a “melt down” and it happens and not to fret. (easy for her to say, right?
!) i guess it happens to all of us!
My last baby did that at certain restaurants and was an angel at others. We came to the conclusion that she really hated certain restaurants for some strange reason.
My four month old loves to scream and squeal around the house, but thankfully she doesn’t do it in public too often. She’s only had a public meltdown once, and as soon as I realized that holding her or giving her a bottle wouldn’t work, I just took her outside until it passed.
funny you say that chellebelle, the only 2 times my little guy has had a melt down was in Old Navy department store, wierd! i guess he doesn’t like mom’s sense of fashion
Gas pains used to make my kids scream like that.
Yeah, I won’t even try to go out to lunch with a friend with my kiddo at this age. I might go with my husband, but he of all people understands if we have to leave early for some reason. I only hang out with my friends with kids, if I’m with my kid. I save the childless friends for when Daddy’s home and can take care of the little guy.
I remember one evening when my husband came in the door looking very concerned and said “what’s wrong?!?” and I looked up and said, “huh? nothing” and he says “but I heard Kevin screaming all the way out in the garage!” and I laughed and said, “oh, that….it’s his latest fun noise, he’s decided to test his vocal range”
So glad that that stage passed….
aye vee glad its not just mine then haha. she hated tony romas for some reason, tried it twice and both times resulted in a freak out session! thankfully we have twins now too so we can’t go to restaurants anymore with 3 children 19 months and under.
I remember those screams. Unfortunately, the embarrassing situations don’t end when they get older. (Though at least they’re better able to tell you what’s wrong.) If I take my 6 year old to any public restroom, he’ll protest because of “blowers” (air hand dryers). He claims that their noise hurts his ears (that and the toilet flushing) but he makes more noise than any blower makes. Plus, the scene involved with a parent dragging a six year old child kicking and screaming into the bathroom because he doesn’t want the kid to have an accident just adds to the “fun.”
My 8 month old tends to scream if we’re in any store that’s NOT playing music, how lovely right? I think I should just get her, her own little ipod! I’m starting to notice alot more ads on “His Boys Can Swim” and alot less posts
I miss reading your blog!
I hear ya on that, Melly-bean will be 2 next week and STILL does this sometimes!!!