Bebe Avec de Joie

Donovan is officially full of Joie de Vivre. That's how I'm going to phrase it. Some might call it Being Overtired In Light of Not Taking a Nap Even Tho You Are SO TIRED You Have Rings Around Your Big Blue Baby Eyes. No: It's Joie de Vivre.

Saturday we had a busy day that included running around the park in front of the library. I thought he'd want to run in the grass in his bare feet but the grass seemed to freak him out a little bit. Once I put his shoes back on him I turned him loose in the paved and/or gravely maze of flowerbeds and benches. Much running around and shrieking with joy ensured. He's reached the point of having no fear as far as running away from me. As long as its somewhere where I can see him and he's nowhere near traffic, I've just been letting him go. When we got home last night he fell asleep in his highchair with a blueberry halfway to his mouth.

Today we went to church and I stayed with him in the Nursery there. We are trying to get him comfortable in the Nursery so we've been taking turns staying with him. Today was a nice day because the kids were mostly close to his age and while everyone took a turn crying there was no hitting or tantrums going on. At one point I saw Donny playing with a couple other kids and I motioned to the gal in charge that I was leaving. 10 minutes later, she brought my traumatized child to me so I could hold him in the vestibule and get him to stop, as Mike, Bill Cosby and I call it, "sup-supping." Later on, Mike went to Aspinwall to look at some records from an estate sale. Just to get out of the house, I took the boy to the Waterworks stripmall, or whatever its called. Note bien: the afternoon nap did not happen. Oh, we tried but after about 45 minutes of laying in bed with a flailing, moaning baby I gave up and took him downstairs to play with his blocks and empty yogurt containers. ANYhow, the boy did NOT want to be in his stroller. I finally took him to Barnes and Noble where he was very happy to run around shrieking. Misbehaving? No, Joie de Vivre. In his defense, the shrieking was happiness and he did NOT manhandle any of the merchandise. In fact, for a boy that loves to be read to, he did'nt care about the merchandise at all. And come suppertime, he fell asleep in his highchair for a second night in a row.

Joie de Vivre can tire a person out.