Wow! Great to know I'm not alone and didn't cause all this.
I take back what I said about copying yesterday. We started teaching her to go potty a few days ago and yesterday and today she's been making the sign for potty and we've been taking her (she makes the sign while on the potty, too, but doesn't smile or look pleased with herself lol.)
I just fed her and it looked like she peed so I asked her if she had to go potty (with the sign) and
she shook her head back and forth. Uhhh WHAT?! I took her anyway and she had already peed her cloth diaper like she apparently indicated.
She likes to touch my laptop so she can laugh when I say "No.", but I don't think she really gets "no"? Or maybe she does... We'll see if she keeps shaking her head at me.
EDIT: I am actually slightly suspicious right now that she is only signing potty because the potty is a novel thing. She seems to like the process and watching me flush the toilet. She tends to do novel things for a few days and then never does them again for weeks or months until she apparently decides she needs or wants to do them again (like rolling over or babbling bababa for instance.) I hope she takes to it!
My advice to you - do NOT try crying it out with a child like this. When DD#2 was around 2 I (crazily) decided she was not getting out of the cot until nap time was over that day. So I sat next to her for 2hrs and tried to get her to sleep. She stood in the cot and screamed at me for 2 hrs. And then we got on with our day. And she did not nap again for over two weeks. Remembering that this was my easy child :-).
Timely info, since I've been trying to get her to take a nap in her swing for awhile now today. She is rubbing her eyes and closing them, but yelling at me when I leave her in there. Sometimes I give it a minute or two and she goes to sleep, but not today! I have no idea how we are ever going to get her to nap on a stationary bed for any length of time without nursing. I guess I just have to wait til she feels ready?
Totally not your fault!
I used to comfort myself by imagining some future world where folks with money got to buy designer babies to raise, and ended up with kids like your dd or my son. Hah! You get this for free!
My son used to grab my neck, just under the chin, and point my face in his direction. Lovely. I had no clue what that was about except 'well, he must want my attention.'
Haha I will have to think of it that way, then. Do all babies not do that? She grabs me by the hair and pulls my entire head her way if she gets the chance. Sometimes she just wants to "kiss" me, though or eat my nose.
These kids are so manipulative.
I have a video when DS was 10 months old; he was using my hand/arm as an extension of his to get things that were out of reach.
I keep saying to myself that a tiny baby can't be manipulative because I don't want to regard DD like that, and that wants and needs are the same thing for the first year of life, but does that really apply to an 8 month old that acts like a 12 month old?
