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This is my youngest, Mia. She is totally the princess of the house. She has 2 older brothers who adore and protect her. They’ve just naturally taken on that role. It’s very cute to me. She hears me sayin’ all day how “cute” she is. She has her daddy, who is SO wrapped around her little finger. This was obvious from day 1.

The complexity of my role as a parent has just taken a new twist and turn. Daddy is a softy. I never knew that. This is our 3rd kid and I never knew that. All daddy had to do with the boys is give them “the look”. But this is different. Girls are so different. 

So I said already that she is the princess, right. So getting back to the awareness part. She totally knows it! So here we have a 18-month-old-princess that knows it. 2 brothers that protect her. A softy Daddy who jumps up at her cute call for him. And a mommy who thinks she’s the cutest little thing ever. Not to mention, of course, grandparents, godparents and tios and tias on both sides who adore her miniature hugs and kisses. 

We have a problem here. 

Mommy and Daddy tried “the look” when she was about 9 months and quickly learned that “the look” and “NO!” will cause a heartbreaking, pouty bottom lip to plump out. That is too much to endure. 

My now-18-month old is testing me to see just how much she can get away with. She knows of her powers! I recently figured out that this girl sees me put her brothers on timeout daily for somethin-r-other. She watches as they do whatever it was they weren’t supposed to do and watches as I or Daddy say “go put your face in the corner”. She will sometimes watch them for awhile as their faces are in the corner. She knows what’s going on here.

So getting back to my explanation of Peter’s inquiry. One day I was watching Mia as she was pulling out wipes from the wipes container. This is a common practice for her. Here’s her doing it at 10 months old.

That time I just took the picture, then proceeded to clean up the mess. Anyway, this time I begin with, “No Mia.” She stopped. “Put it back, Mia”, and I gestured. She understands. She puts the wipes back in. Good. She gets it. But then she starts again. And she looks at me while doing it. She’s testing me. I tell her no, and she KEEPS doing it while looking at me. “No, Mia. Put it back.” I’m running out of options here. So I try something for the first time, I say, “Go put your face in the corner.” Just like I tell the boys. And what do you know. She closes the wipes container, gets her little body up and walks to the corner. 

It really happened like that. I’m more experienced than to believe that it’s going to always be this easy. This girl is the princess. It was very obvious that she was looking for a punishment to her disobedience. And I know that the normal 2minute timeout is not going to work with her just yet. This one lasted about 3 seconds. Mommy’s skilled enough with the camera phone to whip it out and take the picture before she notices. And then I just changed my face from “wow, you are So cute!” back to “come here, you are in trouble.” …haha. I crack myself up…Who’s playing who, Mia?

…Yeah, I know, she’s still the Princess. 

In: Family, parenting | | #