Being Clingy Means 'I Love You' (Or, 'I'm Scared of a College Kid in a Cardinal Suit')

Baby B has shown she wants what she wants when she wants it. This happens often in the wee hours of the morning when she wakes and wants to nurse – all night long. This morning was no exception. She had a meltdown, actually, and we had to toss her back into her crib. She flails her arms and kicks her feet and screams. It’s a good thing we’re on the first floor or she’d wake up the whole house. I think she’s only half awake and is having some kind of night terror or something because it is startling. Of course, this only happens when I cut her off from the old feed bag. I shudder to think what Daddy is going to do when I’m out of town next week for three mornings.

She has been communicating more and more in longer sentences. I’ll ask, “Do you want me to help you?” and she’ll say, “Me help you?” which, of course, means, “Will you help me.” I know, it’s twisted, but she’ll get the personal pronouns down later. She’ll say, “What are you doing?” perfectly clear and with proper inflection. She’ll say, “What did you do?” and “Are you OK?” It’s funny, but these phrases are the ones I use most often on her.

She is a mimic and repeats just about anything you say to her, and you can see her mind working, figuring out how to pronounce something. When she says something, she looks at you as if to say, “Did I say it right?” and if you repeat it, she tries even harder to “say it right.” Ba-det and Ma-get are still the same, but she’s losing some of her early pronunciations for more sophisticated and correct ones. That’s too bad, really, because baby speak is so darned cute. She still says “A-tee” or “A-tay” for OK, and that’s very cute.

One stage she is still in is uberclingy. If she sees me or knows I’m near, she’ll cry for me endlessly. On Saturday, Jack was taking her out to the car so I could drive the girls and their friend, Emma, to Emma’s house. I was in the car; I was three feet away from her. But she sobbed uncontrollably all the way up, calling and reaching out for me. I took her out of the seat when we got there and she slowly returned to normal breathing with the occasional hiccup only to get beside herself again when I put her back in the seat for the drive home. She finally calmed down enough to breathe when I said we were going out to get a hot dog. She comes running for me whenever she’s had a bump or boo boo. But if I’m not around or she doesn’t see me, she’s content to be with Daddy or either of the girls. I have to sneak out the door in the morning on my way to work so Jack won’t have a shrieking, screaming toddler on his hands.


Patricia has been doing very well on her New Year’s resolution to eat well and exercise, something she decided on her own. Additionally, on Friday, she participated in a jump for heart fundraiser to benefit the American Heart Association. She raised $79 in pledges for her participation. (sorry for the photo quality. Combination of low light, slow camera and Brigid in my arms hindered the photography attempt).

In addition, Brigid got to meet Plattsburgh State’s mascot, Burghy, whom she dubbed “Big Bird” (no relation to Sesame Street’s resident large avian resident). But every time she got close enough, she started to cling and say, “No, no, NO,” usually digging her fingers into the fleshy part of my arm. But she was intrigued nonetheless and said over and over that she wanted “to see the Big Bird.” And I’d ask, “Do you want to see the big bird?” “A-tay!” So we’d walk up to it (or as up to as we could get) and she’d start her NO NO NO! again. Ah, well, some things are best admired from a distance.