It is necessary to become more and more creative when trying to distract a wiggly and unwilling baby during a diaper change. He has grown bored with pat-a-cake and the itsy bitsy spider. My creativity is in short supply most of the time, but occasionally; when sleep deprived and beyond myself with mundane stress, I am inspired. Thus, it is with great pride that I present for your edification...

The Poopy Diaper Song

Getcha Butt Clean,

Getcha Butt Clean,

Scrub-a-dub, Scrub-a-dub,

dub dub dub

(repeat)

Aristotle was both enraptured and amused. He even tried to sing along! "Dah, dah, dah"

Nothing beats 'butt-crack of dawn' crazy mommy talk.

[ETA] Butt crack of dawn is not an original phrase. It is borrowed from a very dear and hilarious and wise friend. I should invite her to Xanga!

Baby Ari has been nicknamed King Toothy. He's cut two teeth in the last week, and is working on a third, which will give him a total of eight, four on top and four on bottom. The fourth bottom tooth popped through while we were focused on the third upper tooth, and he barely seemed to notice. The third and fourth upper teeth have been quite an ordeal though. Poor baby has been miserable and had trouble sleeping. He's been drooling so much that he gags on his own spit, and he has a diaper rash too. I've resorted to keeping him dosed up on over the counter meds in addition to herbal remedies. Lots of holding, slinging, nursing and rocking going on too. I just hate when they hurt. At this age, he's just bewildered. He doesn't know why he hurts, or that it's temporary. He just knows he's too miserable to play or sleep.

About once every week or two lately, Ari wakes up in the middle of the night to 'play'. I don't have a better explanation. The waking up isn't abnormal, he still wakes up to nurse 3-5 times a night. It's the staying up that's different. He wakes up sometime between 3:30 and 4:30, and I change his diaper, and he plays for a few minutes, and then we spend about an hour trying to get back to sleep. I let him play as long as he's happy, but that wears out quickly and he realizes he really shouldn't be up, but can't get back to sleep. It's getting to be fairly predictable. I'm really not complaining. He's pretty sweet.