Hear Her ROAR

“The Leo type is the most dominant, spontaneously creative and extrovert of all the zodiacal characters....”

She squealed with laughter as she tugged on my hair waking me from my three hour slumber. I jumped up from being startled which made her laugh even more. As I sat up I caught my reflection in the mirror and saw the horror staring back. Hair disheveled, raccoon circles from smeared mascara, my head slightly crooked from the pain in my neck, eyes squinting...this was me at 6am. Ladybug on the other hand was bright eyed and bushy tailed. At 3am I had decided to lay her next to me instead of dealing with the screams after her unusual night feeding. I was exhausted and needed to get some rest. She must be in the early stages of teething or experiencing another growth spurt, I had hoped. I mean, why else has she nursed every three hours for the past three days? Why else has she been inconsolable and moody? Why does she yell at the top of her lungs when she doesn't get what she wants?

Three hours later we were back at it. Bean was running around practicing her tap dance routine, and Ladybug eating once again. “Ouch!” I shouted. Ladybug gazed back at me with a devious smile; proud that she had gotten a reaction out of me from the harder than normal tug signaling that she was “done”. I placed her on her tummy time criblanket, tossed a few toys in front of her, and checked the damage. Yup, that'll leave a bruise, I thought. As I took a deep breath, Bean fell to the ground with exhaustion and decided to play with her little sister. She snagged Ladybug's ball from her hand immediately making her cry. “Here, Addie...play with this one”, she said handing her an alternative. Without hesitation Ladybug leaned over and placed her mouth on Bean's arm and bit down as hard as she could with her gums of steel. Bean started laughing and screaming, “She's tickling me! No Addie! Stop!” This made her angrier, so much that she screamed letting out a low sounding growl as if a dog were guarding a bone. “Whoa, Addie”, Bean said reinforcing my thoughts as she threw the ball back in her direction.

Eight nursing sessions later, I was finally back in my bed, head sinking in the pillow, face washed, and hair finally clean...my eyes were closed and the only sound I could hear was the dog snoring. I started to fall into a slight slumber. Visions of the kids flashed through my mind as if I were watching a home video on fast forward. The sounds. The screams. The biting. The screams. The screams.....the screams! I quickly jumped out of bed and ran to Ladybug's room. As I turned on the light I found her laying on her stomach, legs hanging through the crib slates. Her face was red, eyes puffy from the crying, sticky nose matter smeared to her rosy cheeks. I knew what would calm her and quickly started to nurse. No sobbing, no whining, the sad face had disappeared, just a calm baby relaxed in my arms. I started to rock in the chair hoping that she'd fall back to sleep when I instantly endured the same pain from earlier. “Ouch!”, I screamed looking down at her. Her response? The same devious smile glaring back at me.

“...They [Leo's] are uncomplicated, knowing exactly what they want and using all their energies, creativeness and resolution to get it, as well as being certain that they will get whatever they are after.”