imp

imp
n 1: (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous [syn: elf,
hob, gremlin, pixie, pixy, brownie]
2: one who is playfully mischievous [syn: scamp, monkey, rascal,
rapscallion, scalawag, scallywag]

The above definition is from the dictionary.die.net but the definition of imp in the Pedersen family is described by one word.....ZOE

this is just one of many classic examples of Zoe's handiwork. She has always been a very laid back child, meaning she does well with schedule and everyday routine. She is happy if she is fed and rested and does both very well; however, when it comes to free time or 'independent play time', she is the most mischievous little girl. Her mantra is 'let me do as many forbidden things i possible can while mommy is busy/preoccupied'. The word NO is merely a challenge. No matter how sternly i say it and follow through with moving her away from the object of trouble, she only works on moving faster. some of her favorite 'forbidden apples' include pulling anything out of anything that is full (ie my baggie drawer, kitchen utensil drawer, shoe basket, toy basket, etc.), the stairs, the bathroom/toilet and the garbage. We thought we had outsmarted her by turning our step-pedal/raising lid kitchen garbage towards the wall. This lasted maybe 5-6 days before she figured out how to turn it around. And the stairs are a total game to her because she knows it'll draw attention. She's been climbing them since she was 10 months old, and so by now she is very fast. If i'm lax about putting up the gate, she'll crawl over there and go up about two steps and wait until one of us sees her, and then it's off like a shot, laughing and climbing as fast as she can. She also loves to get Lily's goat...Lily's pretty, well, girly, when it comes to getting bugged. She fake cries and whines and doesn't do much to remedy the situation, and Zoe just feeds off it. She can be quite the little bully.

When Lily was her age we would say no once or twice and she'd pretty much leave whatever it was alone, so childproofing was almost unneeded. Zoe is the complete opposite. Lily wasn't very mouthy in that she didn't put things in her mouth past about 10 months---On the opposite side, Zoe puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Anything I don't want her eating...dirt, rocks, dirty diapers, garbage...only becomes more desired to eat and put in her mouth as quickly as possible.

I can't decide if it's a blessing or not that she isn't full-blown walking yet. She's very adept at crawling and is down where she can see a lot of trouble, but walking poses its own sort of trouble as well.

To oupdate: The steroids have not been doing a darn thing, so after 10 days I decided to take her into see the surgeon. He was basically the kind of doctor who doesn't really care what the parent thinks or says and blew me off in so many words telling us that the steroid dose given us through our regular pediatrician was not aggressive enough (even though 50% of kids don't respond at all to steroids). He wanted to do another regimen for 2 weeks at the stronger dose and possibly even do 2-3 more cycles of steroids after that in hopes it'd gradually go down. He even suggested at one point that we wait through the summer to see what would happen. That's when I put my foot down. I literally stood up and said, "i will not wait that long...she has been wanting to walk for months now but can't because of her hemangioma placement---we need this off ASAP!" I'm thinking, HELLO! You'd think any type of administered steroid, conservative or not, would show some kind of change after 10 days if it's going to work. Obviously she's a non-responder. This lump is affecting her gait, her stance and how she gets around, the longer we wait, the higher chance she has of being permanently affected by having to weirdly compensate. So then he hemmed and hawed and said, 'well, maybe we could de-bulk it and see if that helps.' But of course, his schedule is still out by a month, so he said to try the steroids for another two weeks and do the surgery come end of May. I am a quite irritated at the whole thing. It's like, don't tell me you understand my point of view as a parent if you're going to do whatever it is you were going to do anyway. That's not compromising or sympathetic...it's just being a condescending know-it-all whom people don't like. That being said, we're still waiting to see any change after 5 days on the higher dose....i'm not surprised and would love to tell him, "SEE, I told ya! @%*@!"