I've been going a little crazy these last few days as my daughter has picked up an extremely annoying habit. She enjoys screaming for attention. It started with the "mine" scream that she'd use on her brother and I'm embarrassed to report it worked at getting my attention and stopping Max from stealing Rory's toys.

Then she started doing it when she wanted something. We know to ignore it, and we did, usually. After reexamining myself I'm also embarrassed to report that it appears about 10% of the time it still works on me as I'm distracted and don't remember to ignore her.

Last night we came to a stand still. While attempting to enjoy a pleasant dinner out with friends our daughter was screaming up to the heavens every time she wanted something. And she wanted something a lot. I actually resorted to putting her on my lap and covering up her mouth whenever she'd do it. Which was worse, because than she would start laughing, so you know I only encouraged it. I still believe that was the best decision since we couldn't leave and I didn't want the other diners to be annoyed by my screaming girl, but it sucked.

So today we start monitoring ourselves more. Daycare is already doing the same things we are with ignoring her screams and reminding her to use her nice words and inside voices. I also talked to them just to make sure they monitor themselves like we are. We need to do a better job of  how we react to her screaming.

My little 16 month old is teaching me something new. When Max was 16 months? He was adjusting to having a brand new baby sister. Screaming was a form of communication with him, but it was vaguely used and short lived. I have a feeling this is going to be more of a struggle with the little girl. She's definitely got some of her Mommy's Daddy's (ahem) stubborn streak to her.

Wish us luck. And if you see us ignoring a screaming girl? Maybe offer us a shot...or three!