It's pronounced "Noo-klee-ar".

Aidan continues his good behavior...mostly. See, here's the thing: he'll be a perfect angel all day long. He'll play, and nap, and smile when I change him....he'll even take every bottle I offer without hesitation now. BUT...there's a big but.

Every day I have him, he reaches a critical mass around 5:00 PM. I call it the "Mommy Meltdown". That's the point at which he decides he's had enough of this "Dad" shit, and demands the real deal, in all her breasted goodness. You can almost set your watch by it....he'll be fine, happily playing or planning world domination with his exersaucer, and out of nowhere THE SKIES RAIN FIRE AND DEATH. At this point, he is physically and mentally unable to be comforted in any way for more than 10 seconds. No sleepy-time in the Neglect-o-matic, no binky, no bottle, no nothing. All he wants is Mommy, and only after an hour or so of wearing ruts in the carpet from walking him around even gets him close to the 10 seconds without whimpering/all-out screaming I want from him.

This phenomenon was extra bad yesterday, as he detonated himself at 4:12 PM, and continued until 5:48 (yes, I know EXACTLY what the times were....in things like this, you watch the clock constantly, praying to god that Mom is somehow miraculously getting of work early and is in fact about to come through the front door.)Of course, by the time she GETS home he's usually either asleep or about to be asleep, and he once again looks like he's been an angel. OF course, the second she touches him, he perks right up and is all smiles for dear 'ol Dad. Which is some consolation, but I can't help but think I see a little bit of smirk mixed in with the smiles.

New development: apparently, Aidan is trying to be "retro" and has regressed to his "sleep for 2 hours at a time during the night" schedule. This, to put it mildly, is exhausting. Apparently, however, it's not all that uncommon. I'm going to leave it up to your imagination exactly how much comfort that is to me. At any rate, I assume it is just a stage, although I am willing to pre-emptively give him unlimited use of the car and $100 for whiskey whenever he wants it in return for one single night's uninterrupted sleep.