When 1 second becomes 1,000

A typical weekday morning for me:

I'm in the bathroom, trying to decide if I have enough time to do my hair before work. Aiden's in his bedroom drinking his morning cup of milk. All of a sudden, Aiden starts crying from his room.

I have a moment to decipher his cries. Are they the fervent cries of pain? No, but I'm still not sure what is offending him. A dilemma runs through my head: I do not want to just run in there in an attempt to fix whatever is wrong. We used to do that and it has taught him that we come running when he cries. We want him to start using words or show us what is wrong, so we can help more efficiently. I have faith that he is capable of this.

This is when the stress of him crying sets in. I cannot go in there to make him stop crying, so I have to sit there and take it in the bathroom. If I were already in the room with him, I would have asked him what was wrong. I would have asked him if he could use his words, or show me the problem. Since I was not in the room, I stood my ground.

I grimace with the renewed wailing. My neck stiffens and the tension runs up into the back of my head. It's similar to having a bee buzzing around your ears while you attempt to drink a Coke outside on a warm, sunny day. It's stressful, but you want to continue with your day, so you endure it.

The tension runs to my shoulders and I finally realize I'm squinting my eyes against the sound of his cries. I open my eyes and pull my shoulders back. I roll my head around once to loosen things up a bit and chase off the headache that is threatening to start my day off wrong.

FINALLY, the buzzing bee stumbles into the bathroom to stare at me, bawling from the doorway, until I fix it. I ask Aiden, "What's wrong? Can you show me what you need?"

He stops crying, hiccups a time or two before, "Uh, uh, uh, uh..." and then starts playing with the door (open, shut, open, shut...), completely oblivious to the stress he has just caused me.

Thankfully, his bouts of happiness and laughter balance out moments like these. Some days more than others. Otherwise, I don't know how anyone would ever procreate again.