My Precious Pearl
Little girl
BIG MESS
Pearl is a little bit of (ok, totally) a Wild Child! She has absolutely no fears, and is full of messy antics. She is nonstop energy. Thankfully God knew that He better sprinkle her personality with lots of love and fun and of course make her cute. Let me tell you if she wasn't so lovable...
Anyway I would love to just write about an average day in her life, how many things she gets into and all of the messes she makes but I am not sure I could ever even remember them all. Before Pearl was born I thought I was an excellent mom. Rose was a dream baby. I thought I owed it all to me being in my thirties, having loss several babies prior to her pregnancy made me more patient and ten years teaching other peoples kids taught me all abot discipline. Little did I know it really was just an average parent blessed (or teased) with an easy child that made me ready and anxious to have a sibling for her.
Here are just a few of the standout moments of my week with Pearl:
*On a trip to the dollar store, Pearl (who is buckled in her stroller) grabbed and opened numerous items including a pack of 100 individaul stickers which ended up sprinkled all over the floor of the store, as I am picking them up she is pushed close to the shelves so others can get by meaning, more grabbing and opening things up. I bought several items I had not intended to buy that day including a toy that she broke. Thankfully I was at the dollar store not a china shop.
*While I am getting ready to go out one morning she is in her highchair eating yogurt (I put her in highchair so she wouldn't make a mess) she usually eats breakfast in the kitchen at little table with Rose. I go down to find that she has smeared both her hands up to her arms in yogurt and covered herself including her clean dress that had of course a bib over it. Covering herslef with yogurt is a favorite activity of hers.
* She loves to keep herself clean and washes her hands quite frequently the other day I found her in the bathroom with her face covered in foaming handsoap. She also had "washed" the top of the sink in handsoap.
*Another day another trip this time to the grocery store. The girls are buckled in the front of one of those carts with the car attached. I hate driving those and discovered at the checkout that there is no way for me to reach the girls and while I am busy unloading my overflowing cart with all of the gorceries. Pearl kept grabbing Rolos. There is only about an inch of space between the shopping cart and the aisles making it impossible for me to get to my kids and even more impossible to get them out of the reach of the candy in front of them. I reached over the top farther then I thought I could reach and take them away from her and threaten her to not grab them again. (It's not like I can do a timeout or a spank at the grocery store while checking out.) As I continue to try to unload my groceries I sense the lady behind me pushing up closer and looking around me. I begin feeling very annoyed, I am way to busy to have her try to be reading a tabloid over my shoulder and I am not about to turn around and pass it to her unless she asks. I finally make eye contact with her and she smiles and says they(my naughty girls) are so cute and she can't blame them for getting into the candy, at which point I realize Pearl has now opened several packets of Rolos and when I try to reach the ten feet span over the shopping cart to get them from her she throws them all over the floor. Talk about roll a Rolo to your friend. The only way for me to retrieve the Rolos was to "roll" the cart forward over the Rolos, smashing half of them into the floor I threw them away and purchased several empty rolls of Rolos.
* Yesterday we went to a playdate with my MOPS group. There had been mention of a pool I thought it was going to be to cold that early in the morning and did not bring suits for the girls. I was letting them sit in the edge by the steps splashing their feet. None of the parents were in the water as most of the "older" kids could swim. Pearl decides to go down a few too many steps and not only manages to soak her clothes but nearly go under I hop in with my shoes on going right into the water and fish her out. She sits on the edge nicely for a few seconds and then ventures back down a step, but still able to stand. She then goes down another step and another and by then she is way more then arms length away from me and I am sure she is over her head although she is sort of swimming and not going under, yet. I jump in with my jeans on and am literally soaked up to my waist (The water was definitely over her head). At that point one of the moms went and got a life jacket for her and we let her "bob" around the pool while I stood around trying to get my soaking wet jeans to dry. Rose said "Wait till daddy hears this Pearl and I went swimming with our clothes on". I replied "Wait until Daddy hears Mommy went swimming with her clothes on too!"
*To "top" it all off she has scaled the crib twice this week and we have now moved her to a toddler bed as she will not stop climbing it. So last night I was up for several hours laying beside her crib so she would not escape. When Rose was this age she tried one time to climb out of the crib and all I had to do was tell her, "No, you will get hurt." She never tried it again. Pearl would have to fall and get seriously hurt dozens of times before she would no longer climb out.
That is just a fraction of my many adventures with Pearl I will spare you the daily toilet paper rolled down the hallway, the paint, marker, and crayon mishaps, the numerous times she covers herself and nearby objects in lotion or the food purposely thrown/ and or spit out on the floor.
I share all this to admit that I am not a perfect parent after all. To those of you with an angelic first born, you are probably not a perfect parent either and you may one day find that out if God blesses you with a second child such as mine. To those of you with a lovable huggable troublemaker you are not a bad parent either. I am sorry for thinking I was a better parent then you and that you should just learn how to control and discipline your child. (We do discipline Pearl but that's a whole post in itself.)
To Pearl I love you dearly sweet baby and would not trade you for the world you make life so much fun (albeit messy and crazy). I can't wait to see how God uses your personality as you grow. I know he is already using you to teach me patience and humility.
PS Miss Pearl(sonality) I hope you are someday blessed with a wonderful wild child like yourself.
My good friend Dawn was in PA visiting her parents. 
The Crayola factory is not the an actual factory (hot wax + small children= danger). They do have a demonstration area where they make crayons and markers to show the kids the process.
The girls watching the man making crayons.
Not sure what this Giant Screen is called, but the kids stand in front of it and it shows their shadow. Our kids are on the left corner I think it is Georgia, Rose, Pearl and Jude.
P&J playing in the rubber bits.
R&G coloring a little stuffed lizard.
Rose showing off her artwork.
Grandmom Bergey put Pearl to sleep while mommy finished coloring Pearl's frog.
The kids in front of The Worlds Largest Crayon!
