violent 2.6 y/o dd: what to do?

[Caththerese1973]

hi
my dd, 2.6, is normally very sweet, but lately she has been into smacking. Not in an aggressive way, exactly - more like an experiment to see what will happen. Eg she will smack my face and run off laughing.
She IS aggressive with other kids, however. She pushes, shoves and tries to slap her peers (not older kids, though) and even smacked my friend's 3 month old baby on the head the other day (I was so embarrassed!).
SO:
a. Is this a normal?
b. How do you stop it?

My ds went through a phase of pinching other kids. You just have to be very vigilant, and consistent with punishments. I did "time out" - every time he pinched, took him to a corner of the room and told him to stay there for a set time. Also give a lot of attention and express a lot of concern to the victim so that the message gets through to dd that what she has done is extreme and unacceptable.

My ds did it out of interest and excitement I think, but he grew out of it.