Baby J is starting to get very demanding. It's so hard to say that and be honest about it, but that's what's going on. He's so cute, and he looks like a little chubby pumpkin, and he smells like baby sour milk and softness all mixed together, but he is becoming a very friendly tyrant.

Somewhere around four months of age, J would just howl at strangers for the most part, *especially* if they tried to pick him up. I know you're thinking that kids don't really do that at four months of age, and that's just the proud mom talking here. You know, the same sort of mom that would say her kid was potty-trained at one, read fluently at age three and is WAY better than YOUR kid. No, that's not really the idea I'm trying to convey here... But for some reason he really IS a bit wary of strangers, even this early. He is also deathly afraid of being left alone. The ear-piercing, gut-wrenching cries carry to anywhere in the house you're trying to hide! You can just forget about putting him in for naps.

To put J in for naps, first you must play with him. Then you must feed him and hold very, very still and quiet for a good half hour. If another child so much as walks past J's field of vision, the entire process must be repeated. Otherwise, he will cry. With four other kids, you can see where little J is taking more than his fair share of the time and attention! And that's just for nap time.

For the last couple days, I had to just plain old get mean with him and lay him down for naps when I knew he was very tired, but refused to go to bed. You could tell as I was setting him down in the playpen that he was feeling BETRAYED. How could his own MOTHER do this to him?? Yes, the wails have been horrendous. This is a very hard process now. But I think J is getting just a little spoiled in this department and he needs to grow up a little. Hopefully the neighbours know that I'm not killing him at regularly scheduled intervals each day...