The Family Troublemaker

Every family has one. You know, the one who gets in trouble all the time, picks fights with siblings, doesn't listen to mom and dad, acts out, disrespects other's personal stuff.

And our family is not any different. The in-fighting and sibling squabbles have already started: the book hogging, toy throwing, pushing the other out of the way, head spanking, no regard for personal space and belongings...

And Malia is only 15 months old today.

Poor Kael - he's really going to have a time of it with Malia. I can hear him yelling at her: Malia, stop hitting me! Malia, I'm playing with that! Malia, wait your turn! Malia, stop making a mess in my room! Malia, let go! MOOOMMMM!!!

Her latest Kael-torture tactic: turning off the TV while he's engrossed in a show. He gets mad, stomps over to turn it back on, yells at her and sits back on the couch. She wanders back to the TV and turns to look at Kael in the eyes while her little fingers search for the power button. She turns it off and then quickly scurries away while he shrieks with outrage. They do this several times, back and forth until Kael is so frustrated he starts crying. I know he wants to sock her (I can see it in his eyes) but he knows better. Instead he gives her his very evil, very mean if-looks-can-kill face. Malia in the meantime is laughing her head off.

She also did this to Truong last night. She turned on the TV while Kael was eating dinner so Truong used the remote to turn it off. She looked over, gave him a dirty look, and turned it back on. She then walked back to the sofa and leaned against it to watch TV. Truong turned off the TV and again, she gave us a dirty look and turned it back on. This went on for a few more times until we flipped the switch box to VCR to show a black screen. I personally will be very surprised if the TV lasts until Christmas.

Today I scolded her to leave the TV on for Kael and you know what the stinker did instead? She turned on the radio on the stereo so we couldn't hear the TV. I almost turned down the volume in front of her but caught myself. I have to do it when she's not looking otherwise she'll figure out the volume control too. I already made the mistake of doing the switch box in front of her - I saw her fooling around in the area this morning and noticed the box was askew. I can just imagine her nosy little fingers probing the buttons, trying to figure it out.

Today she knocked Kael on the head with a toy hammer (repeatedly), destroyed his lego pirate ship, dumped his underwear drawer, threw it all up in the air like confetti, beaned him with a handful of balls and tossed one of his books in the bathtub and ran the water.

She is a nightmare.

Kael's nightmare.