"Aubrey, Be Nice!'

The most common phrase out of my mouth while my daughter is awake, closely followed by "Aubrey, No! Go to time-out." Yes, my toddler, not yet even two-years-old, is officially a bully. Today at the gym's kid's club (babysitting room), Aubrey scratched a little girl's face, drawing blood, which resulted in Aubrey getting a written warning. AGAIN.

Yes, that's right it's not the first time. The first time, at least, was someone we knew (Sorry, Eli). His mom suggested that he might have pestered her, but none the less, Aubrey was the one to draw blood and receive a written warning. Then, at church on Sunday, the nursery leader let me know that Aubrey scratched another little boy but not to worry because the boy pushed her first. "Her brothers have taught her well. She never picks a fight with the other kids, but she's always the one who wins a fight picked with her," the leader jokingly assured me. I'm not really comforted by that. I mean, maybe when she's like 12...I don't know. My only comfort was that she wasn't the one initiating. Until, today...

Today, she was in a mood and I had a feeling that going to the gym might not be such a good idea, but I needed to workout. Should have followed that gut feeling, because apparently it was not a good idea. After the incident, the kid's club sitter told me that the girl Aubrey scratched was sweet and never fights or pesters anyone, which meant that Aubrey initiated. Great. Now, my daughter is attacking people. Oh, and the best part (sarcastic), one more written warning and Aubrey will be suspended from the kid's club for awhile. Great. Not even two yet and she's on probation. Any great ideas? I could use the help.

(See how Charlotte is mad at her? It's because Aubrey stole a toy out of her hands and then tried to scratch her as I'm taking the picture.)

Of course, she's like this at home as well, but there I can put her in time-out or down for a nap. And trust me, I do discipline her. But how do you explain to a not-yet-two-year-old the consequences of her actions?

When she was younger (and sometimes even now), people would look at her curly-headed cuteness and say, "Oh, how sweet. It must be nice to have a sweet little girl after two boys." Then, I would always tell them, "I don't know, she's pretty tough. She even makes her brothers cry," and they would laugh and think I'm joking that a cute little girl could be mean. In case you don't believe me that this girl...

could ever be anything other than sugar and spice and everything nice, take a look at this...

(Attitude I get from her all the time)

or this lovely video. I asked her if I could take her picture and this is the response I get. (See if you can hear her say, "No Way!") Just imagine if she were actually mad at me.

Yeah, a minute more and she probably would have scratched me. :) 

P.S. ...I do love my daughter, very, very much. She means the world to me, hence the concern.

Eye Doctor

As most everyone in my family knows, I have HORRIBLE vision. You know the scene in movies where the visually-challenged character drops her glasses and is on her hands and knees feeling around trying to find her glasses and she so blind she can't see that they are like 3 feet in front of her. Yeah, that's me...no joke. Just ask Aaron, that scene has played out in our bathroom many nights as I forget to find my glasses BEFORE I take out my contacts.

Anyways, I was in desperate need of new contacts so I set up an eye exam with my eye doctor who is great. I'm a little worried that my vision has gotten worse, so I concentrate like crazy trying to focus, praying that I don't mess up, and she suddenly declares me to be legally blind. (Seriously, not that far off.) We finish and she says that even with glasses/contacts I might not have 20/20 vision in my left eye. What does that mean?! She gives me a pair of contacts to try and then we do the exam with contacts in. She does the whole drill again, you know, "can you read anything on this line?" and seems a little shocked when I get them all right. "That's 20/20, I'll take it!"  Yes, I passed!!! I was totally thinking of this video the entire time...

So true. :)