Semi smart, earthy crunchy MAMA

Maelin is almost three. Where does the time go? She is funnier by the day. Although with her new antics she is much more frustrating since she tests her boundaries daily. Flailing feet have caught Raya in the head a total of 3 times so far (poor kid). Generally she loves her sister and is very gentle with her. She loves to hold her and kiss her. She talks to her and plays with her. It is so nice.

Maelin loves to sing for anyone who doesn't already know. She knows the tune of every song she can sing and belts out the words like nobody's business. It's awesome. We woke up the other morning to Maelin's wonderful voice. She must have sang for 20 minutes.

She also loves jumping...jumping over things, off of things you name it and she'll jump it. She is a dare devil and I love it.

I can't believe it...I have time to do this so here goes. While we were driving home from New York, Chris happened to look back at Maelin while he was driving. He all of a sudden blurted out, "Oh, my god." I asked what and he quietly said, "We have a tiger in the back seat." When I turned around here is what surprised us both...

Our Tiger

After a very trying day here at the Bloom house, I realized again why I should get the worst mother of the year award. Maelin would NOT take a nap, Raya slept a whopping 1 hour today since 8:30 this morning and I was just losing it. All afternoon Maelin was whining and crying and carrying on (read = way over tired) when I just couldn't take it anymore and I told her to go up to her room. She wasn't listening so I raised my voice. She proceeded to whine up to her room. It suddenly got quiet and I thought better of my demand and yelled for her to come downstairs. She wasn't listening so I had to resort to counting 3-2-1-0...we count down because once you get to 0 there is nowhere to go. Anyways, I apologized to her this afternoon for "raising my voice" and Maelin said, "you screamed at me". It made me feel awful. Our house is no longer harmonious. I can't even imagine what Raya thinks of all of this, but I know it is freaking Maelin out. I am sure our tough day has got something to do with the fact that she has woken up 3 times already in hysterics. I feel so bad. Any suggestions on juggling a toddler and an infant are welcome. I don't know if I am cut out for this. I can multi task at a lot of things, but giving quality attention to my children is not something I want to have my mind only half on the task.

The other night…or very early Tuesday (Nov 14th) morning Maelin woke up; she came into our room and was lying in bed for a while and I was nursing Raya. She tends to be a wiggly worm so I asked her to go back to her bed and lay down. I told her I would come in when Raya was finished nursing. Amazingly she did as I asked without argument or crying. It was very quiet in her room from across the hall so I figured she had gone back to sleep. Boy was I mistaken! When we all (Maelin included, as she crawled back into our bed sometime around 6AM)got up the next day I entered Maelin’s room only to find Raya’s clothes were scattered all over the bedroom and diapers were everywhere. The most interesting of all of this was each bit was turned inside out.

As an aside… When Maelin came back to our bed (at 6AM) she was indeed stark naked with explaining to us upon questioning that she was doing like we (myself and Chris) do. This made me laugh and I told her to snuggle under my covers and there we were three naked bums in a bed.

However, back in her room wide awake this time I asked what she had been doing, she matter of factly said, “Trying on Raya’s clothes.” with a slight shoulder shrug.

I started to put Raya’s clothes away and asked Maelin to help put the diapers away. She did as I asked but soon turned around and here is the dialogue:

Maelin: Here’s the one with poop on it.
Mom: What?!
Maelin: I used it to wipe my bum-bum.
Mom: Did you do poopies last night? (I examined Raya’s diaper to find a smear of poop on it…and my eyes darted around the room for Maelins’ poop filled diaper.)
Maelin: Yes
Mom: Where is the poopy diaper?
Maelin: I dunno (slight should shrug)
Mom: Can you help mommy find it please.
Maelin: walking around pretending to look
Mom: Looking frantically for diaper everywhere, even the bathroom which would have been pitch black in the night
Maelin: Here it is.
Mom: Thanks, honey (it was ON the bathroom counter, it was probably the only place she could reach in the night since the laundry was in front of the diaper pale). I threw it away and sat down to pee…
Maelin: MOOOMMM, there’s poopeeees on the counter.
Mom: Uh, gross *under my breath*. Thanks.
Maelin: Can you throw it in the toilet.
Mom: Yes…

And as if that wasn’t enough. I cleaned up the poop (thank goodness for hard ones) and resumed cleaning up the mess in Maelin’s room when I came across a use-to-be full bottle of Ayer Saline Spray of course the super-size bottle. What I noticed *first*, yes I say first and wait for it….was that it was empty. I frantically felt around where the bottle lay for an enormous wet spot, but only found the cap.

Mom: Maelin, did you use this?
Maelin: I used it on my nasty poops.

I regarded the bottle again with a much different eye, it did feel a little greasy and look a bit dirty, but….and here is what I saw next! The tip of the bottle where spray normally comes out was CAKED with poop. Charming! And that is what my child does in the middle of the night when the entire house is sleeping.

Mom: Maelin why didn’t you wake Mommy to change your diaper?
Maelin: Because I can do it.

And she is fiercely independent.

Oh my gosh…it has been almost a month now since Raya was born and Maelin became a big sister. I can’t really believe it. Then again, I have been super busy with school, being a single parent most of the time and being tired. Maelin still loves being a big sister and although the last few weeks have been a bit tough at home with Maelin, I have been reading a book titled “You Are Your Childs First Teacher", and in it it reminded me to realize that Maelin is a two year old and that is all. Since then, life has been a bit more harmonious.

I have since been observing her and realizing that all of what she does is imitate us. For instance, I was telling Maelin the other night to take her fingers out of her mouth only to look over at Chris and see him with his fingers shoved in his mouth. Oh well, it could be a worse habit to have. So imitation is the name of a childs game.

Raya on the other hand is up as I type cranky and unsure of what she wants. Life is a very new thing to her and she hasn’t become comfortable with it yet. She is absolutely beautiful though and so much fun to look at. She sleeps an awful lot and loves to snack. Oh it is so wonderful being a mom.

Chris and I have been surviving on maybe 3 hours of sleep a night. Chris working and I taking care of Raya and Maelin and trying to get some school work done. It is interesting for sure.