Is he..? How do you...?

Is he grieving?
Is he teething?
Is he getting sick?
Is he growing?
Is he tired? {YES!}
Is he being a "normal" toddler boy?

How do you know what's going through a little boy's head who has been through way too much for his very short 2 years?
How do you figure out why he's so upset, when he can't quite communicate yet?
Why is he suddenly biting his sister for no apparent reason?

Milo has been having a very hard time sleeping for the last week. He hasn't been sleeping as long at night as we're used to. He's been cutting his nap times down from 2 & 1/2 hours to a little over an hour - if we're lucky. And we've noticed the difference. OH BOY!! Have we noticed the difference.

For the 1st part of this week, I chalked most of this behavior up to the time change. The dreaded time change. And I think he's teething. Maybe. He's drooling like he's teething. But he won't let me look. And motrin has no relieving effect, like it normally does for a baby in pain.

So maybe it's not physical pain. Maybe it's emotional.

How do you help a baby through emotional pain that he should never have had in the first place?
How do you hold him when all he wants is to flail around & scream?
But if you set him down, he screams even harder?
How do you comfort him when he's so upset, you can't tell if they're tears running down his face, or sweat?

And... how do you explain this to the 5-year-old that he's attacking?

It's not all roses & sunshine when you've got a little boy whom you've loved for over a year, but only just met 6 months ago. Bringing him home was life-changing for us, but nothing in comparison to the changes he's experienced. It's an amazing soul that has the resilience to be thrown into the arms of complete strangers, who look so totally different from anything you've ever seen, smell weird, speak funny, and want to smother you with hugs & kisses. All that, and he was smiling & laughing within 48 hours. And now he actively seeks out hugs from us. What an incredible little boy.

If he needs to have a bad day (or week) to grieve all he's lost... I'll take it. For all he's given us in the past 6 months, I can handle this. :)

Or maybe we'll see a new tooth pop up in the next couple days... Who knows?