There's an old soul in that baby.

As I have mentioned a time or two on this blog, my boys are very different.  It was noticeable from almost the moment that cj was born that he was just not like zj.

Or me.

Or RJ.

See, we're a bit of a high strung family, the J family is.

RJ is sort of high strung.

I'm easily irritated and have the patience of a gnat.

Zj got the worst of it from both of us, to the gazillionth power, along with a heaping helping of unstoppable energy.

Then along comes cj.

The first time I held him, a sense of calm came over me.

He just has that effect on people.

A friend of mine once held him for 30 minutes, commented that if all babies were like cj there would be a lot more babies around, then promptly got herself pregnant.

He has been, (knock on imaginary wood), the easiest of babies to raise so far.  He slept through the night at six weeks, and ever since he was teeny tiny small, he has cooed himself to sleep every night and has woken up singing every morning.

He has Ghandi-like patience.

If zj demands my attention - as he often does - cj will just sit and amuse himself with a block or his own hands if maybe I've forgotten to hand him a block.  He will patiently wait his turn.  Every time.

It's strange to have a creature in this house that is not demanding.  I sort of don't know how to act around him.  I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

But I don't think it will.

Sometimes I see a look in his eyes that makes me believe that he knows more than a 11 month old baby should know.

Like maybe he ended up in this family for a reason.

If you subscribe to one reincarnation theory, he's in the middle of this crazy family because there is some lesson he has to learn from us.

Poor kid.

In any event, he's here, he's ours, and we're his.

And I can only hope he can get something out of it for himself.