Edward woke up on the wrong side of the crib after his nap today. At first he happily threw his pacifier and blanket back in the bed after I picked him up, but as soon as we left the room he started fussing and nothing I suggested would appease him. I snuggled him for a few minutes but then he squirmed down and stood next to me crying. Snack? "No." Stories? "No." Trucks? "No." Ball? "No." Juice? "No." All punctuated with persistent wails. I'm sure it was as frustrating for him as it was for me. I carried him into the kitchen, thinking the sight of his sippy cup and the grapes I had ready for snack would change his mind. He accepted the cup, and then one half grape, but went ballistic when I tried to sit him in his highchair for the rest of the grapes. I set him down and he reached up for more grapes. Ah, so it was to be a battle of wills.

We attended a picnic hosted by the daycare last night and of course there are no highchairs at the park. He also was fussy after yesterday's nap but I really needed him to eat before the picnic since I had no idea what, if anything, he'd eat there. (Answer: watermelon and not much else. He'd been so fascinated by the sight of it on the counter awaiting slicing--pointing and grunting-that John finally brought it for a closer inspection, which they both found hilarious.) So I'd let him sit in my lap and spoon himself yogurt yesterday--what a mess! Not wishing to establish such a dangerous precedent, I decided today we could battle it out for a return to routine. I removed all the food from within his reach and retreated to the living room where I sat in a chair where he could still see me as he stood at the table screaming his head off. After about five minutes of this the phone rang and he stopped long enough for his customary "A-lo" at the sound of the ring. But before I hung up he was back at it, wailing for all he was worth.

Finally I said, "Ed, do you want some spaghetti?" It's a favorite so I thought it might work. He looked at me suspiciously, but then trotted over to his chair and climbed up while I heated some leftover pasta. He wasn't finished with the fussy phase though. He ate a noodle or two, but then spit out a half-chewed one. He then proceeded to plunge his hands into the bowl in search of the larger vegetable pieces from the sauce which he then fed himself bit by bit. He also ate a few more noodles along the way, but abandoned the fork and went for the full body experience. After we cleaned up the mess, he grunted toward the grapes, which were still on the counter from the earlier rejection. So I brought them over and he ate them piece by piece, demanding "more more" until they were gone. So he was hungry, but testing his authority. I have no idea what round this is, but I'll score it in my column.

We then decamped to the living room (still oppressively humid today, but supposed to be better tomorrow and through the weekend--woo hoo!) where he drove his London bus all over making some sort of vehicle noise and crashing it into other vehicles and objects. He found the ball seat gave him a perfect vantage point for driving all over the chair.

And that was our day. In other news, the 30-day contingency on our purchase offer for the house expired today and the sellers declined to extend it, so it looks like we'll stay put for now. We can't possibly buy another house without selling ours, and we've had absolutely no action for the whole month. Now obviously, it can take much longer to sell a house, but with no one even looking (we had two showings the whole month--one the first day and one yesterday) it's unrealistic to expect a buyer to pop up out of thin air. We'll take ours off the market and settle in at least until next spring. It might be a bit cozy come January, but larger families have lived in much smaller spaces, so I'm sure we'll make it work.