starlightstudent93-blog

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A Day with a Mischievous One Year Old

Wake Up: It was six in the morning on a Saturday. My eyes would barely stay open. My dear little daughter was screaming at the top of her lungs from her crib. I rolled out of bed, picked her up, and went to lay back down with her in my bed. She fell right back to sleep, but when I finally closed my eyes to drift back to dreamland…OUCH! I got smacked in the face by a flailing arm when she rolled over. Moments later, it was a jab in the ribs by her foot. She had then managed to rotate to a sideways position pushing me closer to falling off my side of the bed. At this point, I had given up the hope of going back to sleep. I just laid there trying to avoid further injury.

Breakfast: I had managed to wake up enough to function by the time I got her and myself downstairs.  I attempted to cook breakfast as fast as possible. My daughter was pulling at my pants leg throughout the entire process. She was impatiently yelling, “Bite bite” and crying uncontrollably. I handed her a piece of her Paw Patrol cheese to appease her and manage to contain at least a fraction of my sanity. I had finished cooking and neatly arranged an assortment of food options on the tray of her high chair. Fluffy scrambled eggs, cut up sausage links (her favorite), and broken up pancakes with cool whip. I sat down with her to eat my breakfast, but my daughter had decided, despite her cry for food all morning, that it would be better for her meal to reside on the floor instead of her stomach. I attempted to feed her the remainder of her food, but she resisted intensely by screaming “NO!” and slapping the utensil out of my hand. I picked her up and sat her on my lap as I tried to fill my stomach with the food on my plate. She reaches her little hand up and starts shoveling my food, the exact same as hers, into her little mouth. I give up on my breakfast and let her finish off my plate.

Cleanup: As I was washing dishes and cleaning up the mess made at breakfast, I ran into a wide array of challenges. My daughter likes to open the cabinet doors and drag out their contents. It is a constant battle to protect her from dropping pots on her toes at the same time as keeping the sink from over flowing due to her constant distractions. Having your back to a mischievous one year old is a dangerous gamble. Will she or will she not behave? I already know the answer to that rhetorical question…NO! I heard “Look Mommy!” I turned around to find she had managed to climb up into the kitchen chair. She was standing there with an enormous grin, meanwhile, my heart had plummeted to my stomach. I rushed over to her and placed her feet firmly back on the floor. “No! You could fall. Stay down here!” I said. She moved on to dragging out all of the miniature chip bags from the pantry and had scattered them all over the floor. Another no, another mess. “Splat, splat”. I heard this sound and turned around to see her slapping a puddle of milk on the floor that she had made by turning her cup upside down. Is was too bad I had just mopped the day before. By this time I had finished cleaning up the mess from breakfast, as well as, the mess my little one had made during that time. To the living room we went.

 Play Time: Our living room is nothing special, but it was very clean and organized. My daughter has a space in the room for her toys and a play kitchen. When we entered the room she ran straight to the couch and pulled the throw pillows down onto the floor. She stacked them up in order to climb up onto the couch. She had gotten up to where I was sitting and stood beside me. The next thing I knew, I had a tiny finger jab my eye. “Eye” she said, with a smile on her face. After I had blocked her finger several times from going into my eye she decided to attempt a Superman dive off the couch. I caught her and put her on the floor. She ran over to her play kitchen, pulled out every plastic dish, utensil, or food item and scattered them all over the floor. I went over to play with her, but she had other ideas in mind. She started throwing the pieces behind the love seat and entertainment center. When I moved over to stop her, she ran from me while screaming and laughing. In the midst of chasing her, I managed to place my foot down at just the right angle and in just the right spot to be pierced by a toy fork. I had to hold back the near dozen curse words running through my mind. I calmed down and looked over to see my daughter with her blanket up to her face and her thumb in her mouth. It’s finally nap time.

Nap Time: As much as I would have liked to have taken a nap as well, there was too much to be done. The living room looked like a cyclone had hit it, the floor was covered in crumbs from her snacks, and the pile of laundry seemed as though it was a mile high. I also needed to complete some schoolwork and take time to study. Time however, was never in my favor. Just as soon as I had finished my school work and went to start on the chores, I heard a cry ring out from the monitor. My daughter had woken up.

Lunch: I brought her downstairs to feed her lunch. I had prepared shredded chicken, peas, and carrots. The chicken was tossed on the floor I had just mopped. The carrots were half eaten and half mushed up on the tray. The peas she ate well but, as I was cleaning up I turned around to find her trying to shove them up her nose.

Play Time Round Two: After lunch I took her back upstairs to play in her room. She drug out every book off her bookcase and scattered them on the floor. I sat in the floor and told her to pick one up and bring it to me. She picked out her book of animals, her favorite, and plopped down onto my lap. As I was reading the book and showing her the pictures, she lost interest and started trying to turn the pages herself. She looked up at me, smiled, and with one giant tug she ripped a page from her book. I put her down and picked up all her books. She went on to play in her play house and tossing all her toys out of the play house window. I picked them up and gave them voices playing with her. She again lost interest and jerked all her toys away from me. I left her to play while I attempted to fold clothes. She came into my bedroom and pulled all the neatly folded stacks from the bed onto the floor. When I noticed what she was doing she picked up as many clothes as she could hold in her arms, ran to the stairs, and tossed them down. She then took off laughing back into her bedroom.

T.V. Time: When we went back downstairs I turned on the T.V. to Mickey Mouse. It is the only thing she will watch and she makes sure to ask for it every day. Unfortunately we only have one Mickey Mouse DVD so we watched that same movie for at least the thirtieth time. I was doing some work on the computer while she watched the movie. It became really quiet and I noticed my daughter had gotten her hands on the remote. She found the power button and was turning the T.V. on and off. In the process she hit a mystery button and the screen went blue. I spent over thirty minutes trying to figure out how to fix it, but eventually gave up due to the fact she had found her way into the cupboard under the stairs.

Supper: In the process of cooking supper, she had managed to poor out a bowl of flour, break a glass bowl she had knocked out of a lower cabinet, and spill her red juice all over the wall. When you have a one year old you have to learn to expect to clean up before, during, and after every activity.

Bath Time: After cleaning up the mess in the kitchen after supper, I carried my daughter up the stairs to clean the mess off of her. I let her play in her room while I was running the bath water and laying out her pajamas. Again she had taken all of her books off the case and had them scattered on the floor. In the time it took me to walk into the hall to get a clean towel she had made her way into the bathroom. When I walked into the room I looked into the tub of water and saw two books soaking up the water. Two books ruined in less than two minutes. That had to be a record. I removed the books and put her into the water. I let her play with her bath toys after washing her and she filled her plastic starfish with water and jerked her arm. This sent the water soaring through the air and landing on my shirt. She noticed. I’m doomed! She dumped water on me one more time before I could stop her. I was just as wet as she was at this point. I dried her off and get her dressed. She was almost ready to go to bed.

Bed Time: The first part of her bedtime routine had been completed. All that was left was to brush her teeth and read her a story. While attempting to brush her teeth, little miss independent had grabbed the toothbrush from my hand and tried brushing her teeth herself. I managed to get through her story book with little resistance because as I was rocking her in the glider, she was falling fast asleep. I laid her down in her crib and closed the door.

Yes, my daughter is a handful. I may refer to her as a gremlin or as my little monster, but she is my whole world. I wouldn’t trade the days with her for anything, even the rough ones. She pushes my buttons and certainly knows how to make a mess, but she puts the biggest smile on my face when she says she loves me and gives me a kiss or does her little dance when an upbeat song comes on. She is my greatest treasure and despite how many times she jabs me in the eye or takes over my spot in the bed, she always will be.

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