Not sure it's wise to wade in, but I'm going to add a little self-awareness check.

Someone recently called my three month old "sleepy" with a subtext (in teh entire converstion) of "my (slightly older)kid is gifted and therefore sleeps less, wants to see more, etc." (all the usual steriotypes).

The implication was that she'd been asking the question "is this tiny baby going to be a peer for my child in a few years," and had decided "no" (now, the assembled children, from two up were making matching costumes from pipecleaners and feathers and dancing folk dances using foreign-language calls together, and a three year old was disciplined for taking appart the strollers, so...)

I was a little too confused to be offended, because my three-mont-old takes two two hour naps and sleeps 10 hrs at night, a pattern more typical of 6 month olds. He sleeps amazingly well compaired to my older son, but, well, he does not sleep "a lot."

I wonder if some of us are *more* sensitive to this stuff because we are affraid of seeming like "that" parent? I would be lying to say I haven't found other kids "sleepy" and we have used the word "lumpish" at home, which is certainbly not polite, but I think a lot of people have this perception. Perception, by definition, is subjective. DS3months (today ;), who reaches up when told he'll be picked up, comando-crawls, and walks with support was percieved as lumpish by "one of us."

What we percieve is *not* the truth. If we're talking about perceptions, then we're talking about *ourselves* not other-people's-babies. And talking about ourselves is a good way to figure out why we see/do what we do. Eh?

-Mich

DS1: Hon, you already finished your homework
DS2: Quit it with the protesting already!