How Do I Fight That?

Lately La Nina has been getting a lot of timeouts for not listening. She will be doing something she knows she shouldn't and when we tell her to stop, she either ignores us, or does it faster.

A tactic we have taken is at the end of the time out we give her a hug, tell her we love her, and re-iterate what she was in timeout for. Normally something like, "I love you, but you need to listen to Mommy and Daddy."

Last night, as I was putting her to bed, she wasn't wanting to go to sleep, and kept play with a tiny book that doubles as a Christmas ornament. I finally had to take it away, and firmly tell her to go to sleep.

At this she started crying BIG time. BH came up to see what the issue was, and La Nina told her, "Daddy is being mean on me." Mean ON mean, not mean TO me.

BH told her I was right and she needed to go to sleep.

After BH leaves, La Nina comes over, gives me a hug and says, "I wuv you, Daddy. You just need to wisten me." It was like I was the one that had been in timeout and she was correcting me.

I have no idea how to fight that. After she finally went to sleep, I told BH what she had done, we cracked up laughing.

Once again, La Nina is getting too smart for her (my) own good.

Later,

Deej