The Happy Dance

Last night I stayed up until midnight putting away laundry. I was so proud of myself for getting this done, and was looking forward to finally going to bed…when Riley woke up. Crying.

My dad happened to still be up and volunteered to take Riley for a minute so I could get ready for bed (cue Hallelujah chorus). By the time I was back, though, Riley still was not happy. I stayed up with him for an hour, rocking, singing lullabies, feeding, and soothing him. And Riley was still not happy. His big thing these days is shouting. Problem is, I have no way of knowing that MUUUUUUGHHHHH meant “Hi, mommy, would you mind changing my diaper? It’s wet and uncomfortable.” So it took me an hour to figure it out. (You’d think I would have figured out a basic like diaper changing a lot sooner than that, but he rarely needs a middle of the night change, so I didn’t think of it.)

So, instantly after I changed the diaper Riley became his normal happy and smiling self. And he started…dancing. Yes, dancing. And giggling. But by this time it was 1:30 in the morning so rather than join him, I put him in his crib (he didn’t even protest!) and we both went to sleep.

All of this points to a need to be able to communicate. I wish I knew what he was thinking or trying to do even just half the time. After a similar shouting incident in Costco last week (yes, I was that mom, the one with a screaming child in the grocery store) I decided to start teaching Riley sign language. Mealtime is when he is the most anxious, so I’m teaching him “more,” “drink,” and “all done.” So far it doesn’t seem like a lot of progress because he’s still shouting and the one or two times he did the signs I’m not sure if he knew what it meant or if he was just copying me. But here’s to hoping we’ll have a communication breakthrough sometime soon.

Of course, before I can teach it to Riley, I still have to learn sign language for “diaper change.”