Dear God. The screaming. The ear piercing, toe curling, mind melting, soul crushing screaming that is emanating from my little boy these days. These screams often come without warning or reason, and last hours (ok, more like minutes, but they feel like hours). These screams are so impressive, our next door neighbors can hear them as if Sam is in their house.
It is as if Satan himself has possessed our little boy, turning his normally sweet persona into that of a total ass-hat, complete with a never ending stream of screams.
Of course, not all of the screams are of unknown origins. Sometimes I know what has triggered them: I had the audacity to say "no", I didn't pick him up for one reason or another, Irene has hugged him for too long, I refused to read "Moo, Baa, Lalala" for the 15th time in a row, etc. Sadly, those account for less than half of Sam's evil screaming fits. The rest of the screams come without warning or reason.
These screams hurt. And since they often come without warning, you are not able to prepare yourself for the sounds that are about to come.
The screams are so high and loud that they cause a physical reaction in Peter.
I remember back when Sam was in the NICU, my mom and I were worried that Sam didn't make any noise, let alone scream. That is not the case anymore. Now, it is rare for a second to go by that Sam is not making one noise or another. Of course, most of the noises are pleasant and cute. His vocabulary is growing daily, and the words are getting more and more complex. Sam even has a few sentences: "I did it", "I got ya", "Bye Bye Dada", and "I love you".
It's just those screams that make me long for those quite days in the NICU when I worried about his vocal development.
Of course, with the screams happening with no warning and often for no reason, taking Sam out of the house or, god forbid, to a restaurant, is a total crap shoot. More often than not, either Peter or I can be seen sprinting from a restaurant, Sam tucked under our arm, apologizing profusely to the poor people in the restaurant who had their ear drums assaulted by our little man.
I hope this is just a phase. I don't know what I would do if this is not a phase, and a short one at that.