Crazy baby...

Our 14 month-old niece (A) sounds just like a Wookie.

A is a gorgeous towhead with enormous blue eyes and a huge grin. She looks like a lovely, sweet baby that one might find in a magazine ad or a television commercial. She's that gorgeous.

And then she opens her mouth and out comes this amazing sound that one can only liken to that sound that a Wookie makes.

It's bizarre and hilarious.

Our little Wookie.

She is also DESTRUCT-O BABY.

My sister-in-law tells me that A hates to have any container full...bags, boxes, drawers...all must be emptied out onto the floor. And I have seen this in action over the last two days.

And A can't just dump things out either. She must fling all objects violently onto the floor. It's a good idea to not be sitting too closely to the baby when she is in flinging mode otherwise you might get clocked. Hard.

When A is denied access to the object or objects of her DESTRUCT-O tendencies she lets out a blood-curdling shriek combined with hands banging on the table or on my sister-in-law.

My sister-in-law (C) and mother-in-law are currently engaged in a heated, intense battle of "Terrace" and A is desperate to get to the game board and the rounded black and white pieces. My sister-in-law pushes the game board further away from the baby who shrieks and tries harded to lean forward for another go at getting her little hands on the game. C pushes the board farther away and A shrieks and shrieks and then bangs her little hands HARD on the table.

"Honey," calls my brother-in-law from the kitchen, "is she OK?"

"Yeah, she's just in one of her violent rages," says C with a wry smile.

After a bit more shrieking, my brother-in-law (G) comes in and grabs her. He takes her to the couch where he manages to distract her with lots of tickling. The distraction is short lived as A climbs down to trundle over to her mother and shriek and bang on her mother's back.

"Time for you to go night-night?" Asks C.

A scrunches up her face and lets out a little Wookie warble.

C scoops her up and says, "Say night-night to everyone" and then whisks A off to her bedroom for a mid-morning nap.