Tough morning for Mr. D

Usually Dashiell is such a happy, easy-going kid, but for some reason this morning was just rough on him! Our normal morning routine is for me to get up at 6 am, go into his room (he's always awake by then, though he normally just chats to himself and waits patiently for me to wake up), change his diaper, read a couple of books, then put him back in his crib with some books and toys while I take a shower and get ready for work. Today he started crying at 5:15 am, which thankfully only lasted about a minute, then again about a half an hour later, at which point I got up and started our morning ritual. When I went to put him back in his crib he just started bawling! And he looked up at me with tears streaming down his face, so very sad, and held his arms up for me to pick him up. What could I do? I couldn't leave him there--it was breaking my heart to see him so sad! So I gave in and brought some toys into the bathroom for him to play with while I showered--of course it was much more fun to pull the shower curtain back and forth, but whatever. ;) After I finished getting ready we headed downstairs for breakfast (toast with jelly and strawberries--yum!) and milk, and you could see that he was just grumpy and impatient about everything! He kept whiny-crying about all sorts of things--not getting his food fast enough, not getting out of the high chair fast enough, not getting to go upstairs when he wanted to. Then, to top it all off, he shut a cabinet door on his finger and it was all done--he cried for about 10 minutes straight. His finger was fine, just a little pinched, but seriously it was as if he had broken it. Once he calmed down he was back to just being grumpy, but of course he was super sad when I had to leave for work, too. I don't know if it's because he's teething or if he's just having a bad day in general, but I feel so bad for him when he gets so upset. My poor, poor little guy! I hope his morning nap reset his brain and he's fine again, otherwise it's Rick who I'll feel sorry for--it's no fun having to take care of a grumpy kid all day!

Here's a picture from a happier day. We went to the "water tower" park last week (as we do pretty much every day), and he always loves to head right for the pile of leaves that were never cleared away--who would have thought that the fact that the city doesn't have enough money to keep their parks properly maintained would have worked to our advantage?