Today was a heart-breaker.
At 7:15 this evening, Babe-O and I were where Babe-O and I always are at 7:15 in the evening – playing in the kitchen sink. We were about half way through bath time and I noticed my little girl, who was quite smiley just moments before, was giving me a kind of strange, stern look. In that moment, I felt a little like the soon-to-be loser of a quickdraw gunfight: by the time you realize you've made a mistake – you're dead.
In less than a second, the quiet stern look turned to an angry shouting look. She looked me right in the eye and started to cry very deliberately in my direction. I quickly realized that I had let her catch a little bit of a chill during her bath, so I turned the water back on and waited for it to warm up before pointing it towards the chilly baby.
Once the water had heated up (5 seconds in people years, 35 seconds in dog years, nine days in screaming baby years) I grabbed the spray/hose/nozzle thing and gave her a warm-up squirt…without taking into account that the sprayer needs to spit out that first bit of ice cold water before the warm stuff comes out.
SCREEEEAMING ensued.
For the very first time, I got what was very clearly a "You suck, Daddy" look. I was able to identify this particular look because when Mom-O came running in (the scream was very alarming), Babe-O immediately reached for her while glaring at me. At that point we aborted the bath project, and even as Babe-O was being carried upstairs, she never broke her angry gaze, which was aimed directly at me until she was out of sight.
All in all, tonight was a little bit of a heartbreaker, but it was still pretty adorable to catch another little glimpse of another side of Babe-O's personality.
So now it's your turn, fellow parents: when was the first time that your baby got really, really mad at you? Share your story in the comments below!
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Mine was bath time, too! My son slipped a little and whacked his head on the tub wall and (to use your word) SCREEEEEAMED. He looked right at me, stuck his lip out, and yelled.
ReplyDeleteWasn't me - was DH - he accidentally poked her in the eye while trying to clear some goop - so not only was he worried about the poke, but he worried about getting MORE goop in her eye - he came running out to me not knowing what to do and MAN she was screaming bloody murder. Mommy of course fixed it. This of course reminds me of an old Gallagher bit - He talks about going to get into the car with his 2 year old and he accidentally hits her head on the roof of the car. And she looks at you for a minute - not crying yet, and then... *THEN* when she realizes you are related is when she starts crying... :)
ReplyDelete@anonymous
ReplyDeleteSo you can relate!
@Ilanna
Goop is the worst. And there's nothing wrong with running shamelessly to the wife in moments of baby trauma.
Two words: rectal thermometer.
ReplyDeleteMy son got really, really mad at me once when I dropped him. Although I threw myself onto the sidewalk prior to any baby body parts actully hitting the ground it was traumatic to us both. To this day, if something does not suit him he says, "Remember when you dropped me?"
ReplyDeleteMom
@anonymous (2)
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how old I was, but I remember crying until my Mom picked me up. She went to sit me on the counter and railed my head into the kitchen cabinet. That’s the first memory I have personally being really, really upset. (It all started when a frog jumped on my foot prior to a bee stinging me – a bad day for a small person.)
@Doug
ReplyDeleteSix words: I'd be mad at you, too!
I might be a bad mother, I found all of these a little funny.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the first time he got mad at me (my how these 10 months have flown by), but we just started swimming lessons. He wasn't happy after the first lesson but when I took him back last week he got very angry. After the lesson he just sat around and glared at everyone. Not even grandparents could bring him out of it.
@Jude
ReplyDeleteBad mother? No way, humor is key! These have been fun to read, I agree.
Lay a wet washcloth over her body while she's bathing -- it will keep her warm.
ReplyDelete@td
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'll give that a shot.
Funny, I saw an ad for a "invented by a mom" product intended to do just as you describe. How it differs from a washcloth, I'm not sure (aside from 9 bucks, probably).