Long Week, E as Basketcase

Today was the fourth day in a row that E only took one nap (and that nap was only an hour long). I'm not gonna lie, I'm tired and burned out. I am sorely in need of a break. A real break. This has been a long week. (By the way, whenever I say things like that, I imagine how much harder it would be with two small children, and then I feel like I must have it easy right now and not know it. And that freaks me out.)

A note about our playdates with Kay and Jonas. E becomes a different baby around Jonas; he is suddenly just barely clinging to his sanity. Gwen asked me to describe what each baby is like when we're together. Hmmm, okay. Jonas: secure, adventurous, happy, curious, relaxed, ambivalent about the giving and taking of toys. My baby: easily upset/startled, cautious, overwhelmed, tearfully possessive of toys. Sigh. Of course, I have to laugh. Eamon has such a hard time hanging out with his friend. I don't know what it is; he's not usually like this. Normally I would reel off words like secure, happy, curious, expressive, and sociable to describe E. I'm interested to see whether this is a dynamic that sticks around, and what it reflects about their personalities. It's been like this to some extent for months now, but seems to have increased in intensity in recent weeks.

A small addendum: Jonas's parents have followed attachment parenting very rigorously. I don't believe for a second that this accounts for the differences in our babies, and it bugs the hell out of me to think that it might appear that way (to whom, I don't know, and of course appearances shouldn't matter). For the record, we aren't anti-attachment parenting, it's just not a style that works (as a whole) for our family. But it's worked for our friends, and that's awesome. I'd say we've used a combination of approaches with Eamon, including elements of AP. You just gotta do what feels right.