So this afternoon, Allie made a conscious decision to have a tantrum. And she willfully carried it out with a screaming crying fit for 45 minutes in protest to taking a nap. It wasn’t that she wasn’t tired; she just FELT like having the tantrum. She could be easily distracted from it and would stop crying immediately if something amusing or different caught her eye, and she’d be quick to smile at it, or babble, but then she’d remember, “Oh yeah, I’m having a fit,” and go right back to it, and add some good yells for dramatics. She had two solid naps beforehand, both about an hour and 45+ minutes, so it wasn’t a HUGE deal she protested her third and last nap of the day, but I was pissed at her, and she knew it. She had her fit whether I was carrying her, or she was in her crib left alone to settle. And continued when I went back up to make another attempt at soothing. Her dad came up to her room after the battle of wills raged on for 45 minutes and took her downstairs back to my parents and his social activities in the living room, and placed her in the swing. Of course the moment she got her way she stopped crying, altho she was clearly sleepy. I was annoyed enough to go take a nap in our bedroom, and eventually, after Allie stayed up to when she ought to be getting her next feeding, she consented to a nap in her crib that lasted for a measly half an hour.

And then suddenly I sat up with a jolt. Given the fight that lasted from 2:45 to 3:30p, I completely forgot that I had to take Dodo in to get his blood pressure rechecked at 3p. It was 5pm when I realized this, and ran downstairs to grab my cell and call the vet. They said if I can get him in within the next 15 minutes, they’d still take him. At this point, Allie woke up from that half-hour nap, of course. And since she was already late for her feeding, she needed to be fed immediately so that she’d be hungry enough to eat for her bedtime feeding. I again had to be at two places at the same time, tending to either my boy or my girl. Mr. W took Dodo to the vet; I changed and fed Allie. Mr. W returned quickly from the vet and said that Dodo’s blood pressure has gone from 220 a couple of weeks ago to 180, so the medication is working, but the blood pressure is still too high. The vet’s instructions are to give the same dosage twice a day instead of just the once. Good thing that liquid’s tuna flavored.

Allie knew I was annoyed at her. She kissed butt and smiled and tried to amuse everyone with her tongue tricks until we (my parents and the three of us) went to our local neighborhood Greek place for dinner. My parents were very happy and laughed and laughed at the slitherly snake tongue trick that Mr. W taught her the other day, at her tongue out and sputtery “pttthhhh” he’d taught her a few days ago, and at just the simple tongue out “nyah” my dad had taught her last week. The proud grandparents even took video. Then at the restaurant, as it got close to her natural bedtime, she got fussy and wouldn’t let us eat. Someone had to be holding her and walking her around for about a half hour until she got agreeable enough to sit in her carrier and hang out like a civilized baby.

My parents think she understands us, now. They said Allie was fine until someone said, “Let’s take her to bed now,” then she suddenly had a protesting fit again. I talk to her all day long, so I’m not surprised she understands a few words, and I feel like she’s suddenly very cognitive because you can see her doing things to make people laugh, watching our reactions and studying us carefully, and basically instead of adults teasing the baby, it’s often the baby teasing the adults. She enjoys the reactions she gets. And I’m suddenly able to “read” her intuitively. I guess it’s time to start spelling things we don’t want her to understand.