Now what do I do?

Lately Kiki has been wagging her finger at us in response to us telling her NO (after she's pulled our hair or bitten us or smacked us.) It's awful cute, but I don't want it to turn into some kind of rebelliou gesture, so I always respond by shaking my finger back at her and saying sternly, "That's right. NO."

When she smacks me or one of the dogs, I tell her NO and then I take her hand and stroke whatever she hit with it and say, "Nice touches."

Today I was lying on the couch watching her play. She dropped what she was doing, came up to the couch to check on me, and pulled my hair. "NO!" I said.

She gave me a look, then reached up and stroked my arm. To add to the apology, she laid her head on my arm, looking up at me with puppy dog eyes, then leaned forward and gave me a kiss.

You know, if she keeps schmoozing like that, it's going to be so very hard to stay stern with her.

(And yes, I praised her for her apologetic behavior. I'm trying to believe in positive reinforcement.)

She's been running around yesterday and today saying, "Hi, baby!" When Mom called, I held the phone to Kiki's ear and for the first time ever she vocalized into the phone, not once but twice! And while I was on the phone, I was feeding her cookies. Mom heard her ask for a cookie and she said, "Oh! She said Mama!"

Umm, no. She said "Mum mum" which is Kiki-speak for "Yum yum" which is any snack she can pick up without a spoon. It does still count as communication as far as I'm concerned though.

She still only says Mama when she's put to bed. Little stinker.