My child has horns

Oh yes. She's sweet with her little blonde pigtails and her louder than life laugh. But, ironically, her little blonde pigtails have always resembled little horns. And her louder than life laugh? It has begun to take on a shrieky, almost screaming type of "giggle."

The twinkle in her eye sometimes morphs into a glimmering speck of evil and she laughs and smirks when she is doing something naughty. Think this sounds more like a 5 year old than an 11 month old? Me too.

There are those who would say that she is unaware of what she is doing. That she won't truly understand she's being naughty until she is much older. And to those people, I say the following: Bite me.

She knows EXACTLY what she is doing and I refuse to pretend otherwise.

She is smart. She is cunning. She is adorable.

It's a dangerous combination.

Miriam understands "no." When she first started getting in to things on lower shelves in our house, I didn't move them or set up barriers to divert her. I "simply" trained her not to touch those things. After a few days of feeling like my mouth would permanently form an "o" shape as a result of repeated "no no's", she learned those things were off limits and she RARELY gets into them now. She actually completely bypasses them on her way to whatever mischief looks more interesting.

Does she obey me all the time? Absolutely not. But, I know she understands. Especially when she crawls over to the item(s), reaches out her hand and looks back at me. In some cases, I have said the dreaded "no" and she has pulled her hand back in and shaken her whole body in convulsions to clearly communicate her displeasure at knowing she should not be getting into it.

On the list of her favorite situations to disobey me in:
- throwing her juice cup on the floor from her highchair
- throwing her food on the floor from her highchair
- throwing a HUGE body convulsing fit complete with screaming and sometimes hitting me any time she doesn't get her way or I won't let her having something because she doesn't communicate it.
-Sometimes when I get down on her level to firmly tell her no, she puts her hands on either side of my face and screams as though she truly believes her voice is capable of cracking the foundation of our house. No joke.

Miriam knows how to communicate. She knows some sign language and knows exactly when to use them. It has been proven over and over and over in all kinds of different scenarios in our household. However, lately, she has decided that she doesn't WANT to say "all done" or "more." She simply wants to whine until we give her what she wants.

This is where the battle of wills begins. You see, my daughter isn't unique in this strong will of hers. Her mother is a mirror image of that will. And I will battle it each day until the sun goes down. HA HA HA HA. I will WIN. (that laugh was supposed to sound menacing, by the way.)

And so, now I say goodnight........

........at the end of another long day of war that is beginning to become the norm around here.

Until tomorrow.

This is the champion....signing out.