17 mths - whats my angel turning into???

[MammyShirl]

My dd has just turned 17 mths and up until now she is an angel, a real sweetie. She has always been affectionate and sometimes now even more... She understands almost everything I say to her (amazes all my friends) so I guess the majority of her frustration is caused by not being able to communicate properly to me. Before when we went to the playground she would point to the swing if she wanted to go on it and say "uhh" meaning "up" and smile if a child was on it. Now she walks up to it, glares at a child if they are on it and screams like she is in pain and if I say anything like "Lets go on anotehr ride darling until this one if free or you can have a go in a minute" she scream louder shaking her head and flapping her arms. The other week she decided to stand on the slides ladder and not let anyone pass. Whats all this behavour about, I feel like however I react is wrong, any tips on dealing with this? Her behaviuor does not upset or make me angry, it amazes me how much emotion this little person can show to get what they want. What is the best reaction?

It seem like she is ready to get into the "terrible two's", I would ignore the tantrums and continue explaining to her why something is or it is not nice. (same problem here with my ex-lovely 18m old )

I sometimes think a "mood" fairy arrives overnight and dusts our children at certain ages just to test us. I found that my DS when he was about 17 mths, turned into a swine starting to throw things, biting my DD and slapping my DH and I. Yet up until then he was 100% gentle and sweet. At 19mths this all seems to be fading and he is becoming more gentle. Will let you know when he fights someone for a place in the slide queue. You just have to put it down to them discovering themselves and where they fit into the world about them, I guess!

so whats my ds escuse then hes coming up 12 months and his favourite trick is let give mummy a cuddle then slap her as hard as possible and trust me he has left bruises on my face it come to the point now where he hits me once i ignore him to show him bad behavior dont get attention he does it twice same again he does it the third time i grab his wrist and says you know its naughty to hit mummy and will hold it for a minuite and ever time he trys it i hold it for a minuite longer then last and so on so on until he stops ive tried just putting him in his play pen for a time out and i tell him in simple words what im doing and he knows it and he will just scream and scream in a tantrum

MS, my dd is 22 months and since around 19 months developed, seemingly overnight, a temper. It was a total shock to us as she's also been a little dream up til then. She was also very amenable to doing most of what I suggested and this temper went hand in hand with her needing to assert her will a bit more.

Just an age thing I would say. I beleive the Terrible Twos actualy start at 18 months, or rather ds certainly did. ds now nearly 24 months and communication is becoming easier therefore less tantrums, hang in there!