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Over the past few weeks, Maggie's vocabulary has grown amazingly. We say "apple" she says "appa", We say "thank you" she says "danku"... you get the point. Recently she has started answering questions...all with the same answer. No.

I first noticed it when we finished changing her diaper and I stood her up and said "ta da!", she looked at me with a furrowed brow (no, I have never used that phrase before and I do not plan to use it again, but how else do you describe this facial expression?) and clearly said "no" as she shook her head. And it's not just a shake of her head, her whole body gets involved. I'm not sure what she has against "ta da" but each time I said it, I got the whole body shake/furrowed brow no.

Tonight as we were eating our Cheesecake Factory-to-go, I offered her some of my corn cake tamales and she politely said "no", bread? "no", french fry? "no", chicken?...you get the point. It's truly adorable the tone of voice she uses along with the head shake and facial expression. Erik pointed out that it's cute NOW but just wait...

Fast forward to an hour later, we're hanging out in the living room. Maggie discovers the fireplace and is playing with the screen in front of it. I say "no" and she continues playing with it while shaking her head, I say "no, Maggie" and she continues playing with it while shaking her head, I say "Maggie" and she turns around and smiles at me. Once again, she has given me the big middle finger. After several attempts at "distraction" (the "expert" advice for this disciplining at this age), I look at Erik who basically tells me what I already knew, she is testing me. Even though technically, what is the harm in her playing with it? Probably none, but that's not the point! My daughter is walking all over me! So I SHOWED HER...we marched straight up to bed.

Unfortunately, Maggie loves her bed and practically begs to be put in it. See previous post about our incredibly easy bedtime routine. So all in all, she learned nothing. But it sure made me feel like I learned how to say "no" to her!