Newborn in the house causing my 2.5 yr old to play up

[Emmalou]

We have a 2.5 (nearly 3) yr old daughter who has always been pretty well behaved and completely gorgeous. We had another little girl 2 months ago and all seemed well for the first month but the last month has been hellish. My little girl says no to everything (cleaning teeth, getting dressed, getting the car ... it goes on and on ..). I have been setting aside time to spend with her on my own to paint, play etc and trying to involve her as much as possible with the new baby but nothing seems to work. I am about to lose my marbles ... any advice out there?

No advice Emmalou, just lots and lots of sympathy. We're going through the same here with our dd who is the same age although our baby is a few months older. Someone said to me 'if you give them 24 hours a day of undivided attention they'd want 25' and it would seem to be true at this age

Hi Emmalou,
Did you try getting your older daughter one of those "true-life baby" dolls? My son is 26 months and has a 3 month old brother. Like you, the first month after the birth of number two was great and then trouble set in... BUT this "true-life baby" doll does seem to help. My elder son pushes it around in a baby pushchair, changes its nappy, that kind of thing. Its especially helpful when I'm trying to feed number two. Needless to say, number one also drops the doll or leaves it sprawled on the floor on occasion but that behaviour hasn't translated into similar actions on the REAL baby...