A Bully in the Making

Tree Faerie is cutting a new tooth - the front upper right tooth. There is an obvious bump on her gums, but the tooth hasn't quite broken through yet. She hasn't wanted to chew on anything cold this time, though, only cool, room temperature, or warm (like ME!). Once this tooth breaks through, that will give her a total of 3 teeth.

I am certainly not complaining, though, especially after the week we've had. Tree Faerie has bit my nipples multiple times, which is to be expected since I'm still nursing her. What wasn't expected was the hair-pulling and pinching she's started doing. The only thing more irritating than being pinched is having my hair pulled (all sexual comments aside). Nothing irritates me more than her grubby little hands reaching out and grabbing a handful of hair. I don't mind if she gently strokes my hair or lets it flow through her fingers, but when she grabs a handful and yanks, I really want to do terrible things! Instead I just scream, which she finds hilarious.

Wednesday night, however, I finally started fighting back. When she grabbed the first handful of hair, I pried her fingers open and told her to stop. The second time, she grabbed two fistfuls and hung on for dear life! So, I did what my mother told me to do - I pulled her hair! Needless to say, she wasn't too thrilled with her hair being pulled, which I didn't do very hard. She didn't let go of my hair, though, so I did it again. We got into a little hair-pulling battle for a few minutes, during which she sat on my face and farted, but she finally let go of my hair.

And proceeded to pinch and scratch me repeatedly.

By this point, the pinching didn't seem so bad. At least for the first minute and a half. I finally started pinching her back! I didn't pinch her hard enough to make a mark, but hard enough to let her know how annoying it felt. She finally stopped and we moved on to tickling and kisses.

I know Tree Faerie knows the meaning of the words No, Stop, Don't, and Gentle. Since she's choosing not to heed these words, she's now learning what the phrase, "If you don't stop, I'm going to do it to you and see how you like it!" I know I'm supposed to be the adult in this relationship, but sometimes you have to talk to them on their level, right?

Though if I ever wished to be one year old again, I don't think hair-pulling, pinching, scratching, and biting would be on my list of things-I-want-to-do-again.