A Rubber Room

Today I really needed a rubber room. Jacob woke up with a new personality and it was all I could do to remember I loved him. He moved from doing one bad thing to another. He was destructive. He engaged in dangerous behaviours. And he whined. A lot. Oh, and he growled, too. It might have been funny, if it wasn't so damn annoying.

At a certain point, after numerous mishaps on the main floor I took him up to his room to play. A contained room. Completely child-proofed. He immediately began climbing on his bookshelf. Dangerous. Then he started throwing his books around. Destructive. Then he tried to climb up on his new wooden barn. Dangerous and destructive. When I stopped that, he tried to pull his quilt off the wall. Just plain crazy.

At Hannah's prompting, I put him in his crib. An even more contained space. Zero hazards. But within seconds he was doing his level best to climb out. And I could see he was going to be successful, given half a chance. The last thing I wanted was for him to discover he could escape from his crib. So I pulled him out and it was at that moment that I began to wish, no long, for a rubber room. Was there nowhere to put this unruly child?

The day didn't get any better with the passage of time. On the way to Costco, Jacob had a 6 1/2 minute nap, which of course replaced his regular 1 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon. As we approached bedtime, I thought a warm, relaxing bath with lavender baby soap would lull my little monster into a sleepy haze. He got into the bath screaming (because I stopped him from climbing in fully clothed), and exited the bath screaming (because he presumably wanted to stay in the now-cold water even though he was clearly shivering). I put on cozy p.j.s and let him play for a bit before bed. He pooed his pants. For the 4th time that day. Finally, it was time for bed. More screaming. I came downstairs, turned the monitor off, and poured myself a drink. Five minutes later, blissful silence.

In the morning, in had better be a different kid that wakes up in that crib. Or I'll be the one needing to be put in a rubber room.