DeJa Vu: Welcome to the Club, Mika!

I have done this before. Only it was in a library with 2.5 yr old Maia and I had no other parental backup. Michaela decided to take a whack at it in the Planetarium this week. There we were. Getting ready to sit down at a table to snack on some big ole soft pretzels. We walked to a table. It was taken. So we went in the opposite direction to get another. Michaela had already found her seat. I told her that table wasn't ours. She was sure it was.

So, she had to fuss and tantrum about it. Her disappointment was deep and searing. She threw herself down on that floor, let our her banshee wail and rolled herself into a fit. Dozens of people looked at her and then around to me...her proud mother. I told her to come along. She refused. So, I walked a good distance away hoping she'd follow. She didn't. I prepared to ignore her.

I told her Sam to take the big girls to a table and that I'd handle it. Michaela was worried for a split second when she couldn't see me. I made sure she knew I was there and told her to come get her pretzel. Nuh uh. She'd rather tantrum on the floor and attempt to embarrass her mom. People looked at me. I smiled and told them she belonged to me. One woman appeared annoyed. I didn't care. She wasn't disturbing any peace and I had a job to do-- to be a mom. I just stood there, ate my pretzel and ignored her.

Sam walked over and asked if he could get her and bring her over to the floor by our table. I agreed with that. That girl continued to lay on the floor getting popcorn in her hair for about 15 minutes. Seriously. I took the rest of the girls to the IMAX while Sam and Michaela hung out in the concessions foyer. Before I went in, a mom came up to me and told me that I was a good mom. She said too many people would have been embarrassed to ignore that kind of tantrum in public but that I handled it the way it should have been. That made my moment. Seriously. I have been living and mothering on a high since Tuesday just because of that one comment. Solidarity Mommies! The next time you see this be sure to smile and cheer on that mom.

I am certain to have another one of these with Paisley in two years. I'll be sure to record that incidence as well. Ah 2.5 yr olds, don't ya love them? I better hunker down when she turns 3.

Picture it: Our Paisley Pie

I purposely cut back on picture taking around Paisley's 6 wk birthday because she got baby acne. A doozy of a case and I didn't want anyone to think that she wasn't cute. Then just as it was clearing up she got all red and splotchy. I cut some foods out of my diet to find out that tilapia was making her face all rashy. Eek!! Please let her grow out of this. At least, she isn't sensitive to tuna. I had that yesterday. Phew. So, I've started taking pictures of her now.Hmm. I really love babies. I say I am done and then she smiles or we snuggle in bed and I can't begin to think of never having a newborn again. But I digress. I love her cry. It is the sweetest, most pitiful thing. She is starting to talk and greet me with a huge grin. As if my heart wasn't already melting! This is what happens when you put her down. She likes to be held at all times. But she is learning she can't be and is learning to go with the flow.

But we hold her a whole lot. It just goes by so fast and I never want to think, "I wish I would have held her more." We're in no danger of that though. Someone should take a picture of ME holding her though. Until then..here she is with her look alike sister.

I knew I should have taken pictures

(No 2.5 yr olds were harmed in the taking of this picture.)

Exhibit A: Michaela Naomi-Faith--She likes to get into stuff. This was taken on May 2nd. She got into toothpaste.

Exhibit B: Michaela Naomi-Faith will cry at the drop of a hat. If you calmly say,"Stay out of the toothpaste." She will cry as if you told her that all the candy in the world was destroyed. If she is mad enough about it she will build her wind up her wailing cry, tense up her entire body and let out a SHRIEK pitched high enough to break glass.

Sam and I have been intending to test out the strength of her scream by buying some thin glass and putting it up to her mouth during aforementioned screech. We really do think she was trained by dolphins who stun their prey by letting out a stunning wail.

Exhibit C: I should have know then. I was so charmed by her cuteness.

Michaela. She likes to get into things but she has kind've gotten better lately. She has reached her peak of terrible two behavior and she has re-emerged into getting into her stuff.

I found that she had climbed up on the counter and was perched on the countertop eating a stolen chocolate krispy treat. That was around 11:30.

At 12:30 when I was cooking lunch she got into the soymilk in the pantry. She had pierced the seal of one and the whole thing spilled onto the floor and the bottom of the pantry (2 separate areas). I have needed to clean out that pantry anyways. I should thank her...maybe...maybe not. Olivia and Maia were peaches and helped me clean up that mess.

At 1:30, I was alerted to more mischief by Maia. I found Michaela in her my bathroom. She had poured soap and hand sanitizer in the toilet and was pouring it on the floor, herself and I think in the bathtub.

She has been whining and doing her banshee shriek all day long. I have kept my calm. My nerves have been getting worn down all day.

Tonight at dinner she was drinking her smoothie and then she dropped it on the floor. It went down with a grand splash. All over her sister, Maia, the floor, the chair, the wall and peninsula wall. I shook my fist in the air in order to keep from yelling.

It's too bad I didn't take pictures. It would have made a good picture sequence while I told this story. Today as I was holding a screaming baby in the sling, when Olivia couldn't resist but trying to tell me this long drawn out story about some detail of her life, while Maia was being a mother to Michaela and dancing around the kitchen NOT eating her lunch and Michaela was pretending to be a lost tiger that wanted Maia to adopt her I was reminded of a conversation with a friend. I think I have mentioned it before.

An older woman from my previous ward and I had a good chat one night as she dropped me off at home after a RS meeting. She told me to really enjoy the chaos, noise and the messes. She told me she missed her 6 rowdy and crazy young sons and wished to relive a few of those days on occasion but not all the time or too often though :)

So today, I tried that and it wasn't that bad. It was annoying. I wanted to be left alone many times but I did find satisfaction in the midst of the chaos of it all. I am tired though. I think moms should go to bed at 6:30 (the bedtime that we shoot for every night) and kids should stay up too late cleaning or planning for the next day or just plain soaking in the quiet with the consequence of being overtired the next day. Don't you think so? We have been doing it backward moms!!

It's always funny when these things happen as Mother's Day approaches. It just seems so ironic. BUT I guess it shouldn't be. This is what being a mother is all about. Bearing the busy, messy, loud and crazy of everyday life for the sake of the joy, the smiles, giggles and the cuteness that is embodied in our children. It can be hard to live with them at times but we wouldn't want to even think about living without them. Motherhood. Full throttle, rumble tumble goodness.
(But you might want to keep some earplugs handy.)