Mary Stewart was at the end of her rope.  The baby had been fussy all day and she finally resorted to strapping him into his activity chair so she could get something ready for diner.

Trinity normally looked cute in her pink denim overalls.  Today is was topped by a face twisted between sadness and frustration.  Some times she looked like she would cry.  Other times she was slamming her little fists on anything handy. She didn't want to eat. She didn't was to nap.  She didn't want any of her toys.  She didn't know what she wanted.

Mary was wearing the traditional mom's outfit of t-shirt, vest, and comfortable pants.  Her skirts and blouses waited for her in the closet.  Somedays whe wanted to dress up, but those were the days that Trinity would choose to spit up, or squit her grape juice across the kitchen.  The vest caught most of these accidents and kept her resonably clean.  Know she knew why women used to wear full length aprons.  And they didn't have detergents to keep their clothed clean.

It was on days like this she regretted leaving work to take care of Trinity full time. It made sense at the time.  Mary's job as a receptionist didn't pay enough to pay for a babysitter.  She and John thought it was important for Trinity to have someone's undivided attention.  She enjoyed her time with Trinity.  She did think it was important to provide Trinity with a secure stable home.  That was all great, but they had forgotten the unmentioned jobs that went with staying at home. "Honey, you're home all day, why don't you do a load of laundry."  "Honey, it would just take 15 min to put something on for dinner." Unknowingly, her husband had turned into a male chauventist. Obviously he had never tried to do these things with a baby clutching his leg.

None of the family got much sleep last night. Trinity decided to try out for the opera in the middle of the night.  It was a very surreal scene.  The moon was glowing a very evil red and Trinity's face was just as red as the screamed her discomfort to the world.  Trinity had screamed until she got the hiccups.  Her long wails were now interuped by small hiccups.  These hiccups desroyed Trinity's train of thought and made her even madder. Mary and her husband took turns walking with her and trying to comfort her.  No one got any sleep.

And now today,  Trinity had been out of sorts all day. She wanted anything and everything.  If she was up, she wanted down.  If she was down, she wanted on the sofa. If this is 8 months, what will the terrible twos be like?

Mary tried to convince herself that Trinity would be fine in the chair.  Trinity was in a safe place.  The family needed to eat.

Spaghetti. It was easy and fairly quick. Mary grabbed a package of ground beef and starting browning it in the frying pan.  She started a pot of water to boil and grabbed the noodles.

"Ag gag gag!"

Mary stole a peek into the living room.  Trinity had managed to throw all her stuffed animals out of range and was hopping up and down trying to get them.

"Yes Trinity, mommy's busy right now"

"AG gag gag!"

"No, mommy can't get a toy for you right now."

"Ag GAG gag!" Trinity was getting very upset and slamming her little fists on the activity chair's plastic tray.  The makers of the tray obviously knew kids but the tray was the sturdiest part of the chair.

"Mommy is dodging grease splatters right now." Mary's happy mommy voice was getting strained.

"AG GAG GAG!"

"HOLD YOUR HORSES!"  Great, now I'm sounding like my mother.  No wonder she sounded like this.

Mary got the noddles in the pot, the tomato sauce in with the meat, and everything under control.  Then she heard what all new mothers fear: Silence.

Visions of SIDS swam through her head as she nearly took out a hip rushing to the living room.

Every stuffed animal, every cushion, every item less than 500 grams was piled around Trinity.

Trinity was giggling.