Where Did this Monster Come From?

Baby is having a very hard time adjusting to all the changes that have occurred.  She went from having her parents all by herself at home to having to share.  She used to have all the time in the world with her mommy (me), and now mommy's lap is constantly occupied by another living creature and she is being told she has to leave mommy alone.

On top of that, her schedule has been extremely altered.  In the past she used to wake up and go to daycare five days a week, over eight hours a day.  There were other children to play with, an overabundance of toys, outings, and other fun activities.  Now she's at home with a tired mom and younger sibling who leave her to her own devices (I'm slowly improving.  Really).

Because of these changes, I believe Baby has been showing her inner monster.  Her inner three year old monster.  One who bites, kicks, hits, screams, growls (seriously!), yells, doesn't listen, and talks back.

The majority of the times Baby gets in trouble is for not listening when mommy tells her to leave Tiger (the cat) alone.  She chases him, wants to pick him up, grabs him by his tail when he tries to walk away, or runs after him with a brush so she can brush his fur.  Tiger does not appreciate any of that.  He also does not appreciate her yelling at him for going in her room or being on the bed.  Or pushing him off the windowsill so he can't look outside.  Or kicking him out of the way when he's enjoying the breeze coming through the screen door.  Or trying to pick him up just because (there's probably a reason in that three year old head, but I have yet to know why).  Or throwing a blanket over him because he might be cold or needs a place to hide.  Or any other form of kitty torture she can devise.  Poor Tiger.

Baby also gets in trouble when it comes to her new baby sister, Baby2.   She wants to touch her and kiss her and hold her and talk in her ear and shove the pacifier in her mouth and cover her with a blanket and pick her up and grab her hands and her feet and her head.  She is utterly obsessed with her baby sister, much more so than I've ever heard of an older sibling being.

Baby is not happy when she is told not to do something she wants to do.  She makes this awful face at me where she just out her bottom teeth and grits her teeth together.  She might also grab my arm and squeeze as hard as she can at the same time.  It's really kind of scary!  I'm glad she is little.  


Yesterday she was hitting things with a toy mannequin she has (It's really cute!  It's a place for her to hang her doll dresses).  Mommy told her to stop.  She deliberately did it again.  Mommy told her that she now gets a timeout.  Baby wanted to walk herself, so she ran ahead, clutching the mannequin and banging the wall with it as hard as she could as she took her "walk of shame" to timeout.  Mommy told her to hand over the mannequin.  Baby said, "No!" and tried to run away.  Mommy tackled her, took the mannequin away, spanked her bottom and told her she needed to do what mommy told her to, and then stuck her in timeout.  

I told her I might start spanking her with a spoon for not listening.  She told me she wanted to pick out the spoon.