i think...

... that once you get cracked in the head with the car door.. it's a sure sign that you should return to bed for the remainder of the day.

that was really the icing on my cake today.

around 8am i received a call from my babysitting folks asking me to go to cambridge to fill in for a sick nanny. ok.. no problem. mom was also apparently also sick in bed.. sure.. whatever... that's fine.

i get there and find out that baby is a little developmentally behind as he is adopted from guatemala and probably isn't quite adjusted yet. which, really is also fine. i can handle that. about an hour and a half go by.. he's playing and running around just fine. then his diaper needed to be changed. while i was doing this, he managed to grab a wipe from me. after his change, i took it away. at that point he started to have a tantrum from which he was nearly inconsolable. so i took him into the kitchen to see if a bottle would relax him a little. he took a sip, chilled out, put the bottle down and then started to play again. this was about the time mom came downstairs. she seemed a little upset that there was a bottle in the living room and proceeded to explain (a bit harshly) that they don't give him bottles to "run around with" i explained to her, that while it was there, he was pretty much ignoring it and i also apologized. so at this point it was time for his lunch, mom was milling around. in the kitchen when i tried to put him into the highchair, he FREAKED out. kicking, screaming, trying to wiggle away from me. i got him strapped in and it too about 3 minutes of dodging hands and feet to get the tray bit on without hurting him. i asked his mom if that was normal, she said "yeah, he doesn't like it". i got his lunch together.. all under the watchful eyes of their obnoxious golden retrievers who decided they were also interested in what was for lunch.. one of them got a bit to close and i ended up saying "no" in a somewhat stern voice. this is when mom really started in on me. she yelled at me that the dog wasn't doing anything and why did i hate dogs so much? explaining anything back to her was impossible since baby was screaming like someone had put hot coals under him. i then sat down in front of him to try and give him lunch.. he just kept on pushing my hands away and screaming. she then accused me of trying to choke him with food... even after he hadn't had one bite. at this point i tried to talk to her to figure out what his routine was and how they normally fed him.. instead of helping me to understand about him.. she tried to tell me what i was doing wrong. i ended up interrupting her and saying "instead of telling me what you think i don't know.. why don't you help me to understand YOUR baby." all of this was going on while baby was still screaming, ear-splitting screams. at that point, she said.. fine.. you do what you think.

by this time, i was so uncomfortable about being yelled at that i told her i needed to leave and that she needed to take her baby. she refused. this crazy woman REFUSED to take her crying baby, after she had just spent almost 20 minutes yelling at me. i had to call the agency to call the father to come home. during the time i was waiting for him to come home, i took baby out of the chair which calmed him down immensely. i also got him to eat some of his lunch.. it seemed like he was just terrified of being strapped into the chair... maybe it was something he experienced in the orphanage? who knows. after his lunch, i rocked him to sleep. he kept on waking up crying.. but at least i didn't feel like i was torturing him by having him strapped into a high chair. dad finally came home and i explained what happened there. he didn't really seem to have any explanation.. only an apology.

i have never ever experienced a person like that who would not take their own crying child. i mean.. it was pretty obvious that she didn't like me.. why on earth would you leave your child with someone you didn't like?

i was SO glad to get out of there.

then.. when i got home.. i got out of the car and the wind (march... in like a lion!!!) blew the car door back so that the top corner hit me square in the middle of the forehead. i'm just praying it doesn't leave a mark. i do have a killer headache right now.

i'm going back to bed with some peanut butter toast.