meet the family.

When my baby gets overwhelmed she shuts down. She doesn't cry, or squirm. She turns her head away and buries it in my shoulder. She scratches the back of my arm with one hand and digs into my chest with the other.

To anyone who doesn't know her it looks like a loving snuggle. It's not.

It is her saying, "Mommy, I am afraid. I can not even begin to process what is going on here."

So when I know better than you family members people tell me not to worry "She'll cry" if she is upset. "I'll take her, she looks so calm." I want to clock them one.

Because they are scaring her. They are in her face and she does not have the fight part of 'fight or flight'.

This is a baby that will sit in her poo, hungry, tired with her leg pinched in her car seat and not complain.

Much.

It takes a lot. When I say a lot I mean A LOT to really get to her.

So what these overbearing Aunts people are missing as they cackle in her face and pat her head and grab her hands and generally pester her to meet their own needs...

...is my baby. My sweet, funny, friendly, screechy little girl. Who has SO much personality.

If you just leave her the heck alone.