Attitude

Yesterday, Nicole's cousins came for a visit and Nicole picked up some "attitude" that I wish she never would have figured out.  First, Nicole heard her cousin using "potty words."  So, Nicoley started chanting, "Pee, pee, pee, pooh, pee."  Ugh!

Later, after the cousins had left, Nicole asked for cous cous for dinner.  I set her down in her chair, gave her the cous cous and went to do some dishes.  Not three seconds later, I look up and she is pooring spoonfuls of cous cous into her hair and saying, "cous cous head."  Then, while I am attempting to get the cous cous out of her hair, she pours more on the table (my fault, I should have thought to move her bowl out of her reach) and spreads it around with her hands and says, "cous cous mess!"  I tell her to stop and tell her that I am mad at her and that she shouldn't make messes.  She takes a handful of cous cous, shoves it in her mouth and says, "Meths," and spits cous cous everywhere.  I'm still kicking myself for not moving the cous cous after she put it in her hair.

Nicole has never done anything like this before.  She doesn't even like messes.  When her hands get dirty, she cries and holds them up for me to clean them off.  She has never played with her food like this, so it shocked me and I just didn't know how to react or what to do.

Then, after I had cleaned up the cous cous, she asked for rice (which is what was for dinner) I put her back in her booster, and gave her rice.  She tasted it, then violently pushed the bowl away and said, "Yucky!  I don't want it!"  Again, I was floored.  She has never acted like this.  I didn't even know that she knew what "don't want it" means.

Having still not eaten dinner, I asked her if she wanted anything, she asked for goldfish crackers (fishes).  I gave her some.  She put some in her mouth, chewed them a little, then stuck both hands in her mouth and stuck out her tongue and shook her hands until the half eaten fishy crackers went everywhere.

I was done by this point, no more food and time out.  She normally stays in time out when I put her there, but she refused and kept coming off the stairs.  Normally, she even cries in time out.  This time, she sang a time out song (that she made up) and just kept coming of the stairs.  Every time that I tried to use my stern voice with her and showed my mad face, she laughed at me.  This is just not my sweet, tender hearted little girl.

Then, Daddy came home and she knew that she was in trouble.  Why is it that she responds to Matt and not to me?  She finally stopped her attitude and naughty behavior when Dad came home and was a sweet girl the rest of the night.

Is it me?  Is she testing me to see what she can get away with?  Did she just discover yesterday that she can play with her food and wanted to try it out?  Will this attitude continue?

I'm just... frustrated and tired.