Day in the Life of Miss Maddie May

My little Maddie May is 15 months old today! Hooray!  These days, Maddie is motoring around like a crazy rat in a maze. She likes to play thief and grab inconspicuous items from tabletops and then run away, deviously grinning from ear to ear, as she tries to make a quick getaway. Most of the time she gets caught, either by Mommy or by Big Sister Bella. But occasionally, she'll sneak away, because her tracker lost interest in following, and go to her secret hiding spot behind the sofa chair to examine her loot.  If she likes the item, she guards it with her life (mostly from Bella) and carries it around for the next day or so. Here she is a split second before running away with a stolen pencil in hand:

Here for now...

...gone for later!  Suckers!

She prefers to roam free, but for her safety, we assembled a pseudo-gate to block her in the family room when we need to contain her.  Sound primitive?  Perhaps so, because the second the gate door clicks shut, incessant, high-pitched shrieking like a caged chimpanzee emerges from the child that once was so quiet and complacent.

Behind bars so young? Maybe you shouldn't steal!

The whining is incessant, unless of course, Baby Crackstein is on.  Yes, we were parents who fell for the false claims made by the makers of the Baby Einstein DVD series that claimed your baby would become instantly smarter by watching these "educational" DVDs.  Recently, the company was sued for making these false claims and consumers were encouraged to return their DVDs for a full refund.  What they didn't tell you is what every parent who owns the series already knows; that the movies are absolute baby-crack! Babies love it!  We thought long and hard for approximately 2 seconds and decided to keep the DVDs, if not for Maddie's sake, but for occasional baby-sitting, or rather, baby-occupying purposes.  Here she is in her usual pose propped up against the ottoman as she takes in the magnificent sights and sounds of the Baby Einstein movie:

Bombs could go off outside, but little would pry her away from her Baby Einsteins

And then there is the issue of dress. Like any child with an older sibling, hand-me-downs are a usual way of life, and Maddie is no different. In fact, Maddie's wardrobe suffers from a more serious form of hand-me-down syndrome where footies have been hacked off to accommodate growing limbs. She stays home all day so she's rarely changed out of her shredded pjs, but on some occasions I bring her with me to pick up Bella from school. Usually this race to daycare is done in haste so I have no choice but to lug her in her unkempt pajamas with the missing footies. Sometimes I like to bring her with a caked-on milk ring around her mouth and dried prunes on the front of her shirt just for the added effect.  The stares I get from other daycare mothers are the best.  

Maddie seems not to notice her hand-me-down pjs

As for Bella, her attitude towards Maddie has somewhat evolved.  What used to be a sort of silent contempt towards her little sister has changed into a passive aggressive form of authority. She likes to push her boundaries with Maddie to see how far she can go before she gets hurt.  Here we witness Bella jumping gleefully on the bed, bearing no mind to how ominously close she is to Maddie's body.

And here are a series of pictures/videos taken recently where Bella and Maddie play dress up.  As innocent as it looks, the video shows a glimpse of the undertone of harassment in Bella's actions:

But Maddie loves it!

Jewels, jewels, and more jewels!