Wails, Tails and Woes

Ack! I am going crazy with Cao. Now that he is five months old, he has become an attention monster. In fact, he now longer jumps in his jolly jumper unless you are looking at him constantly. To boot, he also has gotten in the habit of throwing a tantrum whenever I put him down for his naps. Nothing more charming than a smiling tot who stops, thinks and then proceeds to wail at the top of his lungs while you are trying to tuck him. My revenge? Smile, shut door, turn my ears off and walk away for an hour. Grandpa's response: Rescue exhausted child, make him even more tired, and spoil him rotten. Resulting in a clingy munchkin with only child syndrome.

Also, now that he is more aware of his environment and getting around better; he has suddenly taken a fancy to trying to pet the animals. Ie. one cat who doesn't know what's good for him, decides to snuggle up to a grabbing, drooling baby who likes to not pet the kitty, but pull either a tail or a fistful of fur and skin. The proceeding consquence is kitty trying to bite baby....and is then in turn, punished for the reaction by a swat. My future vision is a screaming toddler running around trying to grab the kitty, while kitty is glued to the rafters in the vain attempts of preserving its life, sanity, and fur. After all this, I'll either adopt out the kid for a day or the cat for a lifetime.