jude-it-tude

It seems my ever-so-sweet babe has a few awnry hairs on that head of his afterall. After almost a full year of a honeymoon stage with the easiest baby ever, some of big kids' spunk seems to be rubbing off...I've caught him unrolling toilet paper, scattering food schrapnel and playing the throw-it-down-and-you-pick-it-up game, but it seems he is capable of much more. . .

The Mama's Boy phase was nothing new to me, since Calvin was the king of terrible crying to get his way...and Jude is following in his footsteps, demanding to be held and at times acting like it's a matter of life and death. With such a manipulative side to him, I was a little surprised to hear from a few different nursery workers how 'sweet and snuggly' he was.

I didn't think it could be possible, but two different gals gave me a detailed account of how Jude crawled up to them and (very sweetly) asked to be held, proceeding to lean on their shoulder for the extent of nursery hour, rocking and snuggling away. And then today I watched firsthand as Jude crawled up to a complete mommy stranger who happened to smile at him at the children's museum, and after batting his eyes a bit, he got her to pick him up and dote on him a little. (Don't worry, we were right there...and I'm pretty sure she wasn't wearing a black mask or kidnapping clothes...) But all of this makes me wonder a bit...politeness and sweet requests for strangers versus bossy crying at mommy. Hmmm. And since when does he snuggle? Why doesn't he show his sweet side for the woman who carried him (plus 50 lbs of blubber) miserably for 9 months and suffered through a full day of labor? *scowl*

I guess he's figured out that around here, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. ...or rather the squeakiEST wheel. *sigh* It's good to know I'm inadvertantly instilling such quality principles in our children.