MJ, THE OPERA STAR!

Well, when MJ was born she couldn't talk.(Obviously :) ) She hardly cried. Sierra was in a phase of watching 'The Little Mermaid' at least once a day. One day she inquired, "Mom why doesn't MJ have a voice?" I said, "Because she is a baby." She demanded, "No, Mom it is because Brooklynn stole her voice." (Brooklynn, Shandra's three year old daughter. Her sworn enemy, at the time. I think they started fighting in the pool last summer. Each insisted they were the only three year old that every was. The war raged on through the fall. At the time of this comment, I believe the battle peaked. Since then they have conceded there may in fact be more than one three year old on the planet.) For weeks after Sierra's initial comment she would often inquire, "Mom, why did Brooklynn steal Madison's voice?" No matter how I tried to dissuade the theory I couldn't convince her.

The other day Madison started talking just like this. Sierra excitedly exclaimed, "Madison has her voice back."


Last night at about 4 o'clock in the morning Madison started talking at the top of her lungs. Sierra yelled, "Ahhhhhh! Madison be quit. Madison, I can't sleep. Madison stop talking. Madison....... Ahhhhhh!" Finally, I went in and got MJ and tried to calm her. I said, "MJ, if you don't shhhh. We are going to throw you away." Sierra fearfully pleaded, "Mom, don't throw her away. She will learn how to go to sleep. She just needs to get big like me."

At 3 1/2 Sierra still wakes up at least once a night. She has slept through the night for at least sixty percent of the time this month. We are making progress. I don't think Sierra's plea convinced me though.