Thank you, EVERYONE, for your feedback about my lil girl. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that simple CRYING when told no, is her way of saying, "BUT I WANT TO", whereas screaming at me and striking me (different from trying to push away from me to get to what she wants) is a bit more of the being defiant thing. The suggestions about consistency were very helpful; I'll keep that in mind. Right now the major thing we're working on is consistent bedtimes and not playing with electrical cords (no matter how well I think i have them put up out of the way, she still finds ways to pull them and grab them!) So yeah; every day's something new. Thanks again for all the input!

I felt I was doing something right when my young 2 year old...

1) puts herself to bed on night 3 of being in her 'big-girl bed' without prompting...she just wandered off to her room and shut the door behind her

2) waits in line behind another little monkey after a worker at the local Meijer superstore read a book to kids on a Halloween event day ...just to MAKE SURE the girl heard her say 'thank you' for reading her the book.

Are 2 year olds supposed to do this stuff?!? Seriously, her birthday was on 10-4, she's just only 2. She creeps me out some days.

Sounds like you have a lovely little girl on your hands there SquidGirl. Keep up the good parenting I say. :)

She's a Libra - duh! We are naturally smart early. :0)

Dad helped pull out the pup's tooth #2 last night. She only got $2 this time. ;)

I agree. Bravo to Griff.

My little 'uns have always deftly twisted me around their little fingers and darn it, they're turning out pretty good.

I'm pretty much agreeing to that, Griff. I think I probably had my parents wrapped around my finger and I am very close to them. I can't remember them being too disciplinarian. My mom seemed more my friend than my mom but as I get older I realize she just had a different approach with parenting rather than your 'typical' parent. I also didn't really have kids to grow up with and hung out with my parents and their friends a lot. Vathana notices Miette gets super whiny around me sometimes and I think he recently realized it's not a bad thing. She just has a different comfort with me than everyone else. I'm the same way. I can be uncensored around V. I can be whiny around him :P

I'd just written this long post for here and i lost it. What a dick. Anyway, Aden got in trouble at school the other day for 'man handling' another student who had killed a slug. He's written a statement for his teacher whom I have a meeting with this afternoon after school.

This is the statement:

As an advocate of animal rights I believe all animals should have a right to live, not die how we choose they should die. I love animals even the small types of animals like a slug or an insect. They don't have a voice so we should speak for them. We could have killed the slug then and there but we all decided we should let it go. It's horrible to kill a living creature...it's just like killing a human being only its smaller and it can’t speak for itself. I want to be a vet so I can help animals like that if they can be helped. When I see someone trying to kill something like a plover or its babies I get so angry and don’t think before I act.
Would you like it if you were an animal, with no way out, getting something thrown at you or wacked with a stick? I sure wouldn't. One time when I was in Samoa we found a puppy with maggots in it and it just made me cry and as soon as we could we put it out of its misery...That is one time you can kill a living creature, when it has no chance of survival.
I realize now that violence was not the best way of dealing with this situation, even though I was really upset. I don’t think it’s fair that Kodi and Caleb should get away with killing a living creature even if it was ‘just a slug’. I think it would be better for them if they learned how important all our animals are and why we should protect them instead of killing them.
I’m sorry if I harmed them. I know now that my actions made me just as bad as them and I am ashamed of losing my temper. I intend to work on this from now on and I’m going to do some research on how to peacefully get my message across in future using words and actions rather than my strength to overpower others.

Awww....and it was all over a slug...how cute. How old is Aden?

Absolutely charming. Give him a hug for me, willya? :)

He'd get along great with my daughter, who has a hizzy if someone should smash a spider or something. All bugs in the house must be carefully transported back outdoors.

He's 12. :) Starting high school next year, so not a baby anymore, but still my baby...specially when he does things like that.

Juni...i think there's quite a lot of kids that're developing a conscience much younger than we might have. It gives me hope for the future.

Hey, both 12 years old - too bad so far apart! Pen pals? :)

lol - they may text each other or email, but pen pals? Didn't that die back when I was young - a looooong time ago.

What is this "pen" you speak of? Does it have bluetooth?

I think they could definitely become 'pen pals' or whatever the modern definition is of that these days. Ask your daughter if she's interested and if so, I'll PM you Aden's email addy. :)

Like most boys he's not the greatest at correspondance, but he does keep in touch with his cousin on the other side of the country via email.