Molly Mayhem

How could this face be responsible for producing mayhem? Never, you say. Well, our little Molly-doodle is not quite 2 years old and has become just a little bit mischievous. Most of the time, she knows exactly what she should be doing, but would prefer to do things her way. I've always known she was going to be a stubborn one, but up until this point she didn't have the power to always do as she pleased. Now that she has the mobility and agility of a toddler, she is able to exercise her will much more powerfully. She has added several new skills to her repertoire lately, such as closing doors (she still can't open closed doors with the doorknob, thank goodness!), moving chairs around the house, reaching into drawers, and climbing. Climbing has become her new favorite pastime. She climbs on the chair in her bedroom to turn on the iPod; she climbs up to the top of the couch to play with the blinds; and her new way of letting us know that she's hungry is to push a chair over to the counter and climb up in search of food. This last one has me the most nervous because the kitchen is filled with plenty of safety hazards. At this point, she'll point to the stove and say "Hot!" and point to knives and say "Harp!" (translation: sharp), both messages we've relayed to her a thousand times. But I've still become ultra-vigilant about washing and putting away knives as soon as they're used instead of leaving them in the sink. Molly's newest climbing venture occurred the other night as I was making dinner, when I turned around to find this:
She was actually IN the exersaucer with Ian (I leave my camera on the counter just for these moments). He looked a little shocked, but didn't put up any protest. He's spent the entire span of his short 4 months here on Earth learning to put up with Molly's antics. If he's in his Bumbo playing with toys, Molly's right there piling more and more toys in his lap. I think the object of the game is to quickly pile as many toys on the tray as possible before Ian knocks them all off. It's actually quite a challenge for her because his wiry little arms are constantly in motion, shoving toys to the floor faster than Molly can replace them.
Ian's thinking, "What is up with this girl??? I was perfectly happy with just the duck."

Or apparently the doll. Notice all the toys knocked to the floor and what remains. Shhh, don't tell Daddy, but I think he likes the doll. Well, actually, he just likes to suck on her hands and feet, which is what he does all day anyway with his own fingers and toes.
Unfortunately, Ian is needing to learn how to deal with some new "Molly antics" recently. Her newest bad behavior has been hitting, scratching, and biting Ian. I know that most older siblings react with jealousy to a new baby at some point, but I was really hoping that we'd skipped over that unfortunate stage because Molly was so sweet and loving to Ian when he was first born. I guess after four months, she's realized that he's really here to stay and her sweet patience has run out. She wants her queen chair back (aka, Mommy's lap)! The thing that frustrates me so much about the situation is that she is so sneaky about it. She'll come up to him so sweetly and act like she's going to kiss him. She'll even look up at me with that precious, loving expression in her eyes. Then, at the last second, she'll bare her teeth and bite him or turn her gentle caresses into scratches. I was hoping to put off the whole sibling-rivalry situation until much later, but I should have known with Molly that it would come early and be fierce!

Molly's antics resulted in our first visit to urgent care this week too with a case of a pulled elbow, or more commonly "Nursemaid's Elbow". I was trying to take her shirt off so I could put her in the tub, but she wanted to continue climbing on the chair in her room so she could turn the iPod on and off (a favorite playtime activity). Per our usual routine, I had her left wrist in my hand and was stretching the armhole of her shirt so I could slip it over her elbow. She suddenly made a mad dash for the door, but her wrist was still in my hand, resulting in the injury. It's the same kind of injury you see when a toddler falls off a curb and the parent holding their hand jerks upward or when a frustrated babysitter drags a toddler (hence the given name). There was no swelling, bruising, or malformation and she only cried out when we tried to move it. She continued to go about her play, but only used her right arm. The doctor did a quick, simple click-click move with her arm and, voila!, all better. Through the whole thing, I learned an awful lot about Nursemaid's Elbow that I did not know before. Interesting reading for anyone with a child between the ages of 1 and 4. You can read about it here. Molly's now as good as new, other than needing to be careful not to re-injure the same elbow in the next few weeks. Interestingly, one of the sites I read was a paper in a medical journal that said the injury is most common in the left arm of girls around the age of 2. Perfect profile for our scenario.
So, life with an almost-two-year-old is turning out to be quite adventurous, but for every moment of fear and frustration she causes, there are plenty of other moments where her sweet preciousness will just take your breath away. After all, she is my Molly Joy and she fills my days with just that.