sometimes you just need to have yourself a good cry

 i remember seeing an episode of everybody loves raymond when debra tries to explain to a perplexed ray why she'd intentionally put on a sad song when she's alone and cry to feel better.

i may not have had such an intentional approach, but i've been there, especially when i was pregnant. you find yourself just needing to get a good sob out of your system, and you cry till you're dry, and then you actually feel better. i know this is mostly a girl thing.

but noah this morning gave me a total shock. and i know he's not expecting his period anytime soon.

i was compiling some music for playlists for the kids to listen to while they settle in to sleep (we've been a little restless lately) and started to play a song the kids have heard multiple times, and that is in one of the baby einstein videos noah still loves. it's slow and soothing, but certainly not what i'd call "sad."

and noah burst into tears.

i turned the song off,  so i could ask him what was wrong, and as soon as i did,  he told me to start the song again. and i did, at which point he burst into tears again.  sure enough, the song was making him cry, and sure enough, that's just what he wanted to do.  now i don't like to see my kid cry, but i also figured he had a right to feel the feelings he felt like feeling, so we played that song 6 times. after the 5th time i got the camera. and by camera i mean my crappy phone camera that was all i had reachable and only lets me take 32 second long clips.

it gets cut off but he says 'yes.' after he saw me taking the movie he calmed down because he wanted to watch himself cry. so we did that once and then he wanted the song again.

(and yes that's him telling me no he doesn't want to turn it off.)

we must have been getting tired by now because he stopped crying about halfway through and just resorted to those recovery sniffs and huffs to regain his composure.  we got past our sob spell, and perked up back to normal for lunch.  i still don't really understand what prompted him to react this way this time or to seek to cry himself out. but i think it's safe to say that that song isn't going to make the cut for our sleepytime playlist.