Fiesty!

This cute almost 2 year old has been throwing me for a loop recently. She is so strong willed and her favorite words are "Mine" and "No". She's also started the hitting phase. My biggest challenges with her are diaper changes, changing her clothes and brushing her teeth. She is fine when Daddy or Ga-Ga change her and she's an absolute terror when I change her. I honestly dread changing her...it's such a battle. I try being lighthearted about it and have fun, but sometimes we just need to get going or I have dinner cooking and I just need to change her poopy diaper now and not mess around.

Yesterday I tried giving her choices that still got the same outcome and that seemed to help. Such as saying, "Ella it's time to change your diaper do you want to lay down on your own or do you want Mama to lay you down?" She did seem to respond better to that. My friend Kim suggested that I read The Strong Willed Child...I thought I had that book, but I think I just borrowed it from the church library and gave it back because it's was an old edition. Currently I'm reading Bringing Up Girls so I think I'll finish that one first and then check out The Strong Willed Child from the library. What I don't want to do is make her feel like she can't be her own person. I want her to have her own opinions and be a strong independent person, but she also needs to understand who the authority figures are in her life and respect them.