Mischievous Miss Molly

This little girl, what am I going to do with her? She is by far, hands down, my craziest child yet. (and that's saying something because Ali was pretty crazy herself) She is into EVERYTHING always, every second of the day. She brings a whole new meaning to child proofing. In fact we like to call it "Molly proofing". I just can't keep up with her and I certainly haven't figured out a way to keep her out of trouble.

Among many, many other things she likes to jump in the tub with her clothes on.

She loves to climb on the counter and get into whatever she possibly can, this time it was hot cocoa mix.

You know those child lock door knob covers to keep children from getting into certain rooms? We've got 9, yes 9 of those on various doors in our house. All bathrooms, all doors to outside, the door to downstairs so she can't mess up all the cleaning the girls are doing at chore time, my craft room, the pantry, and the inside of her bedroom door so she can't come out at night.

Her bedroom looks like a prison cell. She quickly discovered how to climb out of her crib so we just took that down and put the mattress on the floor. She can climb onto her dresser and reach the light switch and the lamp and the sound machine. Seconds after putting child drawer locks on her dresser drawers so she would not be able to climb on the dresser we watched her wrap those little feet around the knobs and still succeed in climbing on top of the dresser. So we had to rearrange her furniture so the dresser is no longer under the light switch and a child gate is between the dresser and the wall protecting the sound machine and the space heater behind it. She quickly discovered she could drag her mattress over to the light switch and be able to reach it. So the mattress is now sandwiched between the wall and the dresser as tightly as can be to keep her from being able to move it. And after all of that she is just tall enough to move her pillow over and reach it, so now there is duct tape on the light switch. Oh, and we had to move the rocking chair out of their because she would fall asleep very uncomfortably on it every night. Her room has one dresser and a crib mattress on the floor, and a gate to protect the various things that need to be plugged into the wall. That's it. We had to remove toys and all other forms of distractions because she was staying up into all hours of the night trying to play instead of sleep. She is definitely a creative and crafty little thing.

She likes to get into things she knows she shouldn't and as soon as she hears someone coming to remove her from the situation she quickly and frantically tries to do as much possible damage before her efforts are thwarted.

She likes to run away from us in parking lots and into the street when we are trying to get in the car.

She found the pencil sharpener and took out the compartment that holds all the microscopic shavings and dumped some water in it and began to poor her pencil shavings mixture back an forth between the cup and the compartment, and inevitably on the floor and herself.

She has never been that impressed with toys that are age appropriate for her. She always wants to be playing with whatever her sisters are playing with, especially if it's choke-able or their homework. (the excuse "my sister ate my homework", if that's even an excuse, would be valid in Ali and Ana's case)

She knows how to push my buttons and I feel like I have no control over her what so ever. She is beautiful, smart, funny and fabulous but I sure am at a loss at parenting her.

That is why moments like these are so peaceful and precious. It makes me want to pick her up and rock her, but I don't because I know it will only wake the beast.

And I am TERRIFIED to have a new baby, not because I'm scared to have a newborn, but because I'm scared to have a Molly and a newborn. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to "Molly proof" the baby. Maybe in the few weeks I have left Molly will mellow down a bit. Not counting on it though, so wish me all the luck in the world, I am going to need it.