"No!"

Apparently "no" is quite amusing for Layla. She definitely knows what the word means. However, it somehow evokes a feeling of joy in her when we say it. She thinks it's fun (a game?) when we pull her away from whatever she's doing. This can be quite frustrating.

Tonight there was an incident that actually lead me to tears...tears of laughter. You see, she's gotten into a bad habit of "beating" items on our entertainment center. The "beating" usually occurs on the glass door. Definitely not good. Items of choice are typically a remote or her sippy cup (which has lead to some nice opaque streams down the glass). We tell her "no" and she usually smiles/smirks/laughs and continues until we pull her away. She thinks this is fun and most likely will walk right back.

Might I add that every time she is hitting the door...she's looking at us as she's approaching with her hand in the air...she's looking at us the entire time she's hitting...and she's smiling at us when we say "no"...and on and on it goes.

However, tonight she did something slightly different. As always, she walked up to the entertainment center (watching us the entire time) and began smacking her sippy cup against the door. We said "no" several times to no avail. Jeremy stood up to take the sippy from her and she immediately stopped and brought the cup down into both hands. Jeremy sat back down, Layla began hitting the door. We said "no" and she continued. Jeremy stood up and she immediately brought the cup down into both hands...as if to say "I stopped." Jeremy sat back down and Layla started hitting again. Jeremy stood up and Layla pulled her sippy back down. At this point "no" was out of the rotation because we were too busy trying to stifle our laughter. I don't know how many times we watched this routine...enough for me to spout out "we should be videoing this!" through my laughter and tears.

Oh my. Parenthood has begun full-swing!

What do you do with a 1-year-old to stop a behavior that's inappropriate? "No" isn't enough...removing her from the location doesn't work as she simply walks right back. Time-out is too advanced. Flicking of the hand sometimes gets her upset and other times not...but I don't know if she's truly recognizing that the flicking happens b/c of her actions. I can sit and read a book with her or try and distract her with another toy, but how will she learn that her previous actions were wrong?? Ugh!


**At some point I'm sure I'll be writing a post with the same subject line...only the discussion will be about my frustrations with her constantly saying "no." I can definitely wait for that one...