Home Wrecker

This is what a home wrecker looks like:

Yes, she's unbelieveably cute, sweet beyond words, and just about as cuddly as a baby can be. But behind those blue eyes and curls is a tiny little hurricane that tears through my house each and every day, and leaves me feeling like I have been hit by a truck by the time she goes to bed.

I know all babies and toddlers get into things. I know that once they become mobile, you have chase them more. And I know that all little ones do their fair share of exploring, and as a result destroying. But, she's different. She's above the average. She's a gifted home wrecker.

Here's a sampling: at Christmas, all in one day, she smashed the "Cookies for Santa" plate that I received as a wedding gift, and that we've put out every Christmas since having kids, and a snow globe I've had for a long time. She's destroyed many picture frames...not by breaking the glass, but by turning them over and tearing the part that stands the frame up off. She broke countless Christmas ornaments. She empties her wipes box at least a couple times a week (why don't I keep it out of reach? I try! I don't always remember!). She has run down the hallway holding the toilet paper trailing behind her many, many times. She's eaten several of my makeup sponges, which is weird, I know, but I find them with little bite marks taken out of them. She empties the drawers in all of our rooms on a consistent basis. She's torn pages out of some of Mattie's favorite books (Poor Llama Llama!). And if I dare try to fold laundry and turn my back for a second, she comes along and smashes the piles down. I won't even mention the trash and the toilet....she loves to play in both.

And that's just a very short list. She is so different than Mattie was at the same age. Mattie would sit still and watch a tv show, or play with a toy, or color. And I do have memories of her making messes, but nothing, NOTHING like my little Presley. Presley never sits still! She is always into something. Always.

So she has earned the nick name Home Wrecker in our house. Not what you normally picture when you hear that, but it is exactly what she is.

Still, I think I'm gonna keep her...she's definitely worth the trouble. She earns my eternal adoration every time I ask her to give me love, and she lays her head on me and says "mamaaaaa".