Gypsy in the Making

Elaina has been getting little self into a little bad habit as of late.

She has become a Hoarder.

Like her mom, she likes to have her "stuff" and likes to have it handy. If this means that she has to stand at the bottom of the steps crying because she can't haul her plastic shopping cart full of crap to the top of the stairs, she will. And then, wiping away the tears, she'll try once again to get that little cart to roll up the steps.

Little did she know, being a 2 year- old hoarder can also get you into trouble. It seems as though none of us have slept through the night yet this week. And Lincoln is not to blame. Of course he is waking up for his usual early morning hungry time around 4-5 a.m. but his big sister has been getting up between 5-6 a.m. For no reason. We're talking about the typical 7 a.m. wake-up girl. Before I went on maternity leave, we could almost turn off our alarm clocks and rely solely on her to wake us when 7 a.m. rolled around. Those were the good old days.

For the past couple early mornings and middle of the nights, Elaina has wanted to hoard all of her toys into bed with her. When she first moved into her big girl bed, Buddy the teddy bear and PinkBear, the beanie baby were all that she needed to make her happy. She has since moved on. Her bedtime posse now includes: 2 baby dolls, See 'N Say, Frog the flashlight, Barbie radio, Tupperware apple which the binkies stay in during the day, no less than 6 books, 2 baskets, plastic toy car keys, plastic sand shovel, Lilly the Leapfrog and at least 3 teddy bears. And don't dare forget the 2 binkies; one for each hand.

This is all of the crap that she loaded onto our bed when she greeted us in our bed at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning. It took this child THREE trips to haul all of this loot from her bedroom to ours. God forbid she be content with only one bear and a cuddly hug from mom or dad. NOPE. Our king sized bed was loaded and cramped with little girl loot and barely enough room for the little girl.

And then there was Wednesday night. Wednesday night she tried a new spin on her old trick. Mommy and Daddy both tucked Elaina in before bed while Daddy made it very clear to stay in her bed when she woke in the morning and play with her toys in her room. Apparently, Elaina didn't quite differentiate still being awake with sleeping and then waking. This is what I walked in on:

I cleaned off her bed not only once this night, but three times! After I took this picture, she woke up around 3 a.m. and started over. We heard her shut her door and Eric headed in to put her back to bed. Five minutes later, we heard her talking book begin to play. Daddy took care of her once again. This time he turned off her nightlight so that she couldn't see to play with her toys in the dark. So we thought. At 3:30, her book begins to play again and it was Mommy's turn. I cleaned off her bed while she stood aghast, crying pitiful tears. Mommy was there to stay. I joined her, sleeping in her bed, putting an end to her bedtime party. Sorry toys!