Calgon Take Me Away!

I am sure just about any Mom out there can relate to the times that you just need a break. Well, I am at that point now and need SOMETHING - a vacation, a night on the town, a trip to the mall ALONE, a pedicure, massage....anything!

Don't get me wrong, I love Madeline and David to death and I feel extremely fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom but after a day like today I am ready to run away from home and join the cloistered nuns. So, now you get to hear me gripe....

Things started at about 3:00am when Madeline woke up screaming for her Nuk. We started her with a Nuk at night to break her from her finger sucking because she would suck her fingers until the point they blistered. That has worked and actually, Madeline doesn't really suck on the Nuk but mostly just plays with it and holds it. Anyway, I got out of bed and got her Nuk for her and straightened out the blankets for her and tucked her in again. She asked me to turn her music on again (she falls asleep to Baby Einstein classical stuff). So, I turned on the music and then she wanted it louder. Okay, at this point you have to know Madeline. Occasionally, she'll just "get stuck" on something and at present asking for the music louder is her thing. I really, really don't think it has anything to do with her ears because if you just go to the volume knob and touch it to pretend that you adjusted the volume, that will completely satisfy her. I think she just enjoys trying to boss us around. Yet last night, at 3:00am I remind you, I turned her music on. Madeline asked for it louder so I tried the fake volume adjustment. She still wanted it louder so I actually made a real adjustment and turned the volume up "again". She still wanted it louder. At that point I told her the music was loud enough and it was time to go back to sleep. She proceeded to SCREAM "music louder, music louder" to which David and I tried to ignore her. However, Madeline decided to get out of bed and adjusted the volume herself to BLARING. Okay, that ticked me off. Out of bed I went and told her that the music will now be shut off - it's all done! Needless to say, that didn't go over very well. Crying, screaming....so next Madeline tries her next trick up her sleeve which is to cry, "Hurt!" So, she is now yelling, "Hurt, Hurt, Hurt". That didn't get our attention so Madeline proceeds to cry, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow". Again, you gotta know that we know her enough to know when she is faking it or not. This was definitely her, "I want their attention so that I can get what I want" move but it wasn't working. Sure enough, Madeline realized that David and I weren't buying it so she quieted down after a few minutes. However, with all of this middle of the night activity, Madeline developed a little cough and every few minutes she would cough. I tried to give it a little time to see if it would clear itself but it did not. So now, at about 3:30ish I got up to give Madeline a little cough medicine, helped her blow her nose and tucked her in again. Whew....all was now quiet and we all ended up going back to sleep. ZZzzzzzz!

Morning came too quickly. Madeline could've used to sleep in but she had school this morning. So, up for breakfast and off to school. Upon pick-up (11:30) Madeline decided that it would be funny to run around the hallway to the point that I had to practically had to chase her down (even though the teacher told me that they were discussing walking today). In the mood that Madeline was in I was dreading the visit from her speech teacher when we got home, but I do have to say that Madeline did actually work very hard during speech - although I sat in on the session today to keep her on track.

Naptime came around. I knew that Madeline was in DESPERATE need of sleep. She just looked tired. I thought if I lay down with her, it'll prevent her from playing too much and maybe she'll settle in for a little nap (and if lucky, I would doze off too). Madeline was so excited about Mama in her bed that she was a complete wiggle worm. My idea didn't work. When the phone rang, I got up to answer it. When I hung up I told Madeline that I was going to go down stairs to clean-up the kitchen while she finished her nap. "SCREAMING, crying, Hurt, OWwww, Owwww!" Geez, I never thought that tuning something out could be so stressful. After a few minutes Madeline quieted down. What do I hear through the monitor though? RRRiiiippppp, rrriiipppppp, riiiiippppp. What is she doing? It sounded like she was tearing something. I went upstairs to check. She was tearing the pages out of her favorite Cinderella book!!!! At this point I think steam was coming out of every orphus on my body. Out of bed Madeline came, down stairs to the time out chair for time-out! Then I'll be dipped if she thought misbehaving would get her out of nap time. So, after Madeline did her time in time-out, back to bed she went. While I was tucking her in I made a big dramatic show of removing all the torn-up pieces of the book out of her bed and putting them in the hallway because the book is now garbage. I was so ticked. She acted like a little puppy that chewed everything in the house because it was mad that its owners left the house. To top it off, I was ticked about that book in particular. Granted, I acquired it second hand from the school that I used to work (the library was discarding some old editions of its books). That Cinderella book was the exact same edition, illustrations, etc. as the one I had when I was a little girl. How I loved that book....and how Madeline loved it too which is why I just can't believe that she did this!! So, when I came downstairs and once again had to listen to the "screams, cries, hurts and ows" I called up David and pretty much had a mini-meltdown on the phone.

The day is still young, although Madeline is now quiet she did not nap. This evening should be interesting. The tale above makes Madeline sound like a monster child. For the most part, she is not. But let me tell you, she has her moments and she is as stubborn as they come!

Spring/Summer is just around the corner and getting out of the house more regularly will do us all good. But in the meantime, I'll be hanging out at a convent. Or maybe I'll join the circus - Lord knows it would be quieter there!