Ok, not that I'm complaining... But what the hell is going on?? Back in the day - oh, say 4 months ago - newborn Aidan seemed to enjoy my company. He would make a point of it to stay up late, demanding my attention until the wee hours of the morning, and I was almost happy to give it to him. We'd say up late on the couch, watching infomercials about the latest butt of basalt do-hickey, or re-runs of 'The Tonight Show' which come on around 4am. Yes, those were the days...

Now, however, it seems I've fallen out of favor with our number one son (which, by the way, is a fine menu selection at Chang's Chinese Restaurant in Totem Lake). Long nights of father-son bonding have been replaced with a cranky baby starting around 9:30pm - about 15 minutes after I've been given Aidan to hold. This is followed by another 30 minutes of fussing, crying, fidgiting and ugly, bitter beer faces until at 10pm he's suddenly dead to the world.

His head drops back over my arm, his mouth gapes open,his arms and legs turn to limp noodles - there's no waking him now. So much for the happy father-son bonding time - it's time to put mini-me to bed. Walking up the stairs, his head bobbing slightly up and down, side to side as we ascend the stairs to his darkened,second floor bedroom showing only the shadows of his crib fastened mobile projecting against the wall.

I put him in his crib, cover him up with his blanket - and that's it. My bonding time is over - until tomorrow night, about 9:15.