Maddie the Destroyer

Sometimes I'll walk into the room to find Eric on the floor playing with all of Madeline's blocks.  Madeline may not even be in the same corner of the room as Dada.  It doesn't matter to Eric if Madeline is helping or not.  He's still content playing with blocks all on his own.

Eric's favorite game is to make a gigantic block fortress, and place all of Maddie's Little People on the towers as if engaged in battle.  Sometimes it's the humans against the animals.  Sometimes it the meat eaters against the plant eaters.  When the Little People Nativity set was still out for Christmas,  Baby Jesus defended the highest tower of the fort.

But poor Dada never gets to see who wins because a force stronger than Little People always intervenes.....

Madeline The Destroyer.

As soon as she gets wind of Eric's block tower, she comes right over to ruin it.

She doesn't do it because she thinks it's a fun new game.  Oh no, she does it because for some inexplicable reason, Dada's forts really piss her off.

Gal isn't messing around when she knocks those puppies down.  She even yells, "NO!" in a frightening voice of rage as she makes sure every last block has tumbled.

Poor meat eaters defending their fort!  They didn't stand a chance against Madeline's steady hand of justice.

Our best guess to why these towers make her so mad is because she has an inferiority complex.  She is just learning how to stack blocks and could never make such a magnificent tower.  Therefore, all block forts must be destroyed.

Recently, she's even learned to be sly in her desire to destroy Eric's construction projects.  She knows that if she rushes right over, Dada will shield the blocks.  Instead, she saunters by as if she's not really interested at all.  She'll watch quietly for a few moments, search for Eric's weak spot, and then.... ATTACK!

Madeline lacks mercy.

I'd hate to see what Madeline does to the babies at daycare if they dare to build a block tower.

Earlier this week I walked into her classroom just in time to see her running over a crawling baby with a toy shopping cart.  When her teacher reprimanded her, Madeline glared at her and stuck out her bottom lip petulantly.  That's right, my kid's a bully.

Oh boy.  Toddler hood is going to be awesome!