She Get It From Her Mama

Oh no she di'int. Homegirl has got some attitude. Case in point, today's battle over the outlet plugs.

Nyla was in her walker this afternoon. She was circling around and around the kitchen island, and on both sides there are outlet plugs. Unfortunately, I haven't put any safety plugs in there yet. I know, bad mommy.

Well, on one of her revolutions, she stopped at the plug and started to go for it to play with it. "Nyla, no no." I said to her. She gave me a little cheeky look, then continued around. Back to the outlet she came, and I said even more sternly, "Nyla, no no!" Here is the point where Ms. Diva came out. Homegirl turned to me in her walker and gave me this look like, "Mom, puh-leeeze." Thinking she's slick, she put her fingers on it again.

That was it! I went and took her hand and with two fingers, gave it a little sasa (Samoan for spank). Now don't get on your soapboxes. I didn't sasa her hard at all. Just a little alert to her that it's bad. I don't like saying "no" to Nyla for stuff that's just trivial, like putting cardboard in her mouth or rolling around the edge of the carpet. I'll just tell her, "come here Nyla. Come over here." But when it's serious stuff, things where she can get hurt, I say "no."

So I sasa her fingers and say, "No, Nyla. Bad." At first I thought I got through to her. She backed away a little bit and nervously looked around. Then she looked straight in my face with her big hazel eyes and laughed. OH. HELL. NO. She laughed like, "Elizabeth, I am just getting started!"

Miss Thing has an attitude. Hmph. I wonder who she gets that from. *ahem*