Elliot has entered an interesting phase of his emotional development: psychosis.
Yesterday I got home and gave Hannah some temporary relief from her job, which I've decided is somewhere between 6 and 8 times harder than mine. I took Elliot into my arms and learned that he was a little crabby. He was thrusting out his lower lip, telegraphing that he was getting ready to cry.
I wanted to nip this in the bud. Calming a baby once he's screaming is much harder than just keeping him calm to begin with. I was unsuccessful, and Elliot started crying.
So I went through the standard toolkit of Elliot-calming tricks (most of which were discovered by Hannah): making popping sounds with my mouth, giving him a bronx cheer (in case you don't know what that is), blowing on his hair and on his ears.
He was amused by these tricks. But he was also still tired, and still upset. So he continued crying.
The effect was strange: in the middle of his screams and cries, he flashed me a smile. Not a fake smile, the way an adult would do it. Babies don't know how to fake emotion. This was a genuine moment of happiness sandwiched between thick slabs of misery. And yes, it seemed a little psychotic. We don't bounce back and forth between happy and sad that quickly, and there's something that seems a little crazy about it. But babies don't play by our rules.
Maybe there's something to be learned here: What's wrong with a moment of happiness when you're depressed? Or a moment of sadness on a happy occasion? Embrace it, just like little psychotic infants.
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