Friday, July 22, 2005

We all scream for ice cream.

Because Noah’s being raised by cats it seems he’s become a bit cautious around other babies. During our visit with Bella and her folks yesterday Noah had a few crying jags. The two kids would be playing on the floor, Noah smiling, having a grand old time and then Bella would shriek with happiness and excitement. And Noah would react as if she were being butchered alive. I’d calm him down, he’d get back to normal and go back to playing. Then another happy baby Bella scream followed by Noah bawling and shaking in fear. It was just so weird. He was terrified. Sean and Patrice kept apologizing for Bella being so loud but there was absolutely nothing to apologize for – Bella was being her normal darling self. Sean said “I guess we Milligans are loud” to which I responded “And I guess we Eggerts are anxious.” So for the moment we can add Bella’s squeals to the list of things Noah is afraid of – the vacuum cleaner and the coffee grinder. Hopefully this is just a temporary phase that he will quickly outgrow. More time with other babies will help and to get him more accustomed to loud noises I’ve decided I should just scream more around the house.

5 comments:

Katy said...

Sophie was afraid of plastic bags when she was that age. One particular day stands out it in memory. She was sitting happily at the counter in her seat and Grandpa blew up an empty bread bag like a balloon. Quiet, harmless, sufficiently far away from her, and she totally lost it. It probably took her 15 minutes to get back to normal. Also sneezing sent her in to hysterics. But moths (which scare the hell out of me) were no problem for her. Phobias are just strange.

I do think it's a good idea to have a good scream occasionally though.

Trikc said...

Noahs being raised by cats.. lol! But what fine cats they are. And at least he'll be agile!

hazel said...

I felt so terrible. bella was screaming because she was so happy to be around noah, and it made noah so scared. it was like some twisted version of the gift of the magi.

noah was quite a gentleman though, and I loved watching him crawl around. he's totally on the move now. and he's a solid boy - and all that hair! bella was jealous!!

I loved having you guys over, and despite sean being sullen (he gets that way when he's hot and tired and stressed over tests) he enjoyed having you over too.

NME said...

You were the perfect hosts. I didn't even notice Sean being sullen - it was overshadowed by my tiredness.

Kodi said...

That's a tough one. You want your baby to have fun, but when he's terrified it gets quite frustrating. Kiri was not afraid of much, but that led to blind leaps into the deep end of the pool before she could swim (god, I have dived down after her more times than I can count)the climbing of many trees, petting mean strange animals and being bitten once, and other horrors. A cautious baby is not a bad thing, really.