"No"

She finally started saying it..."no". This is a word I was hoping to avoid for a while, although I do say it regularly so it shouldn't come as a surprise that she started saying it. For example, Me: "do you want some water?". Maddie shakes her head no. I say "No? Ok, do you want some milk?" Every time she shakes her head "no" I say the word. She's smart, so naturally she would associate it and begin saying it herself. I'm not going to lie...at this point it's cute to hear her say "no". She has the sweetest little voice and for now she's only saying it when I ask her a question and she's not saying it in an "ugly" way. I'm sure I'll be posting again in the near future about her getting ugly with it...it's guaranteed to happen, it's only a matter of time!

One bad thing she just started is hitting :( She hasn't hit people yet (well, once I was pretending to sleep on the couch and she slapped me on the cheek...but I won't count that) but she hits her toys. She recently learned to say "ouch" when she bumps or gets scratched or just hurt in whatever way. Well, she's acting that out with her toys. She'll be holding a teddy bear then just hit it and say "ouch" with a mean look on her face. I tell her it's not nice to hit that she needs to be sweet and gentle with her toys. Hopefully this hitting phase won't extend beyond her toys and even then, hopefully it won't last long! I'm getting her to say "sorry" when she does something that might be hurtful, hopefully she's understanding what that's all about! I'm trying my best to explain feelings to her but I don't know at what age I should get her to truly understand all that....