I Second That Emotion

For the past few months, Milo has had only six emotions: Happy, Pain, No Pain, Hungry, Tired, and Quiet Contemplation. Over the course of the last week or so he has suddenly developed a whole host of others, including Anger, Frustration, Extreme Joy, and I Feel Generally Pissy. For a little person he's pretty happy, but he has also started throwing temper tantrums that make you want to leave him on a street corner.

He used to love getting dressed, and now suddenly putting a shirt on over his head causes him to howl at the top of his lungs at the injustice of it all. He used to like having his diaper changed, but now diapering him is about as easy as diapering the cat. It's like trying to change a diaper on a moving, shrieking target. When he can't quite reach a toy, or when he discovers that he STILL isn't strong enough to crawl, or when he gets stuck on his belly and can't roll back the other way, he lets you know just how displeased he is about the whole thing.

People have assured me that this is a normal developmental stage, like the Terrible Two's, except that no one calls it the Terrible Five And A Half Months because the alliteration isn't as nice, and that it will pass quickly. On the other hand, what if he's just the kind of person who gets easily frustrated, who likes to throw temper tantrums, who some day will grow up to shoot anyone who suggests he change his shirt.

"It's nice that he's developing more personailty," I said to Steven yesterday. "But what if he develops a personality and it turns out he's an asshole?"

"I think whether or not he's an asshole is up to us," Steven said. "I think we have to teach him to not be an asshole."

One more thing to add to my list. Pay bills, brush teeth, write in blog, teach Milo not to be an asshole.