a peaceful drive?

Matthew is in Minneapolis this weekend for a conference with the pastoral staff, so Finn and I went to GF this evening to a friend's house. While I was driving there, Finn, of course started fussing and crying. When he starts getting mad in the car, sometimes I try to talk to him, other times I make crazy faces at him, and sometimes I just turn around and tell him "No" and "Stop screaming". If any of these work, it's not for very long. You would think that after a year, we would know 'the thing' that works to calm him down. Well, tonight I figured it out. I was trying to get his attention through all of the screaming, so I reached back and I put my hand on his foot and started rubbing it and told him to settle down. Almost instantly he calmed down. I removed my hand and when he started getting mad again, I put my hand back on his foot again and started rubbing it. It worked!

This really shouldn't be a surprise to me. He has always liked his feet tickled and rubbed. Sometimes, if he is sitting with me on the couch, he will put my hands on his feet to tickle them and play with them. Other times when I go in to get him up from his naps, he will lie down in his crib and put his feet up so I can play with them before I pick him up. Why didn't I think of this before? I attribute this to when I nurse him. I have always played with his feet while he was nursing, so it only makes sense that this would be a very soothing and calming thing for him.

And before you think that it was a fluke, when we were coming home tonight and he started crying, I put my hand on his foot and he instantly stopped crying and fell asleep. Wow, a peaceful drive!!!