We are in a transition with Phoebe right now.

Co-sleeping is coming to an end. Our bed is too small and she wakes up too easily. I am tired.

She is into everything and everywhere. Pulling everything out of drawers, throwing plates and food on the ground, climbing, and running away. She ran out of a store today towards the parking lot.

She hates being strapped into anything. This makes feeding her very difficult. Even more difficult while training a dog as I cannot just feed her on the coffee table while she roams free.

She won’t let me put her down when I really need to get things done and grabs onto my legs and screams.

Her teeth are all coming in at the same time causing pain and grumpiness.

So here I am with a 16 month old, a new dog, a husband who has been gone for half a year and a house that is not at all baby proofed. Phoebe does not even have a room of her own.

On top of all this the stroller’s broken and the nanny quit.

I’ve spent the last 5 days taking her to work with me in the morning. She does great on the bus. Saying hello and charming everyone. I think to myself, “Oh she’s sweet now, but wait until 10:30 when she’s exhausted and won’t nap.”

My friend helped me today at work so I could just finish the last few projects I had to do before leaving for the day. Phoebe had not napped and had pulled a majority of the papers out of my desk drawer as well as smearing her banana all over the carpet and emptying the contents of the wastebasket.

Phoebe came back to me 30 minutes later a changed girl. She was happy, engaging and not demanding. My friend was elated at the time he’d spent with her. He told me she had crawled up and down 4 flights of stairs over and over.

So basically my baby is a puppy.

If you do not give a puppy what it needs and prepare your house for it, it will chew your Prada purse.

If you don’t give a toddler what she needs, she will drive you over the edge.

Photo by Michael Clemens