An easy scapegoat

Emma has been a little "off" for the past couple of days and we can't really put our finger on what the problem is. She just seems not quite right. She's a little more whiny and clingy than normal and nothing really seems to make her happy. For the first hour or two she was up this morning, she pretty much just sat in the room and cried...that sad, pitiful moan of someone who can't really communicate what's wrong with them.

My theory: she's teething. But that's my theory for everything when nothing else seems really wrong. It's served me well over the last few years, but I know I won't be able to use that excuse forever. As much as I would like to, when the kids are grumpy teenagers, I won't be able to say "Oh, the must be teething."

By then, I will have switched to: It must be hormones. This one is really good because it covers a much broader spectrum of problems and can also be used for a much longer period of time (heck for Emma, I can use it for the rest or her life, really).

Because the thing is, I need a reason for things. More accurately, I need to be able to BLAME something. It's much easier to put a name to something than to say "I don't know what's wrong". With these abstract ailments, it's easier to say "there's nothing I can do" as opposed to "I don't know what to do".

And I, for one, want to keep up the illusion as long as I can that I always know what's going on.