So... my daughter might be a bully!

I hate to admit this but its true...my daughter (Amber...the baby) is suddenly exhibiting bully like behavior. I first noticed it the other night when we had some friends, who were in town from LA, over for dinner. They have a boy a few months older than Peyton and a girl a few months younger than Amber. The boy and Peyton quickly became fast friends (which I expected) but the babies reacted a little differently. At first Amber would just glare at Emma from across the room but one touch of her stuff and Amber was not having it. Pushing, hitting, screaming and tug o war for toys went on all evening between the two of them. I have to admit that Emma was not letting down either, she put up a good fight...one time even winning a battle for a toy...pretty impressive stuff. Although this little cat fight was quiet entertaining for the parents it made me start to worry a bit about the behavior I saw coming from my 16 month old.
Well if my concerns were not real after that night they certainly are after today. We went to the park to let out some energy. Right away Peyton jumped in with a group of girls who were playing fairies and Amber went straight for the slide (typical). Amber went up the stairs and down the slide several times before another little girl, a few months older than her, started up the stairs at the same time...well for whatever reason Amber was not happy about sharing the stairway and began elbowing her way up, well the other little girl, being bigger than Amber, won the battle and got to the top first Amber just sat there glaring...I am beginning to learn that no good shall come from this look. Amber literally waited for that little girl to come back to the stairs and she began to attack her (well attack may be a strong word but I had to pull my child off of her in fear of her safety) The other little girl had fought back and left scratch marks on Amber's face. For the rest of our time at the park Amber had it in for this girl. She would see her coming and would give her "the look" or let out some harsh baby babble at her...it was crazy. I couldn't believe this was my child. I was that mom at the park who had the kid that all the other moms were whispering about. On the way home we stopped to grab some fast food for dinner while waiting for our food Peyton wanted a toy from the coin machine so in a weak moment I gave in. She got a little blue bouncy ball that was in the shape of a panda bear. Cute! She played with it all through dinner. Back in the car again Amber was picking a fight with Peyton over the last of the ice in the bottom of the soda cup. I heard the fight begin so I encouraged Peyton to give Amber a piece of ice so that we wouldn't have to hear whining all the way home. Peyton was apparently not moving fast enough for Amber and all the sudden I hear Peyton screaming "My blue Ball!!!" I look in my rear view mirror and see Amber with "the look" on her face while she is Chewing on Peyton's blue ball. "Amber" I said "You spit that out!" she just kept chewing while Peyton was screaming. I told Peyton she better give her a piece of ice if she ever wanted to see her ball again. Sure enough as soon as Peyton gave Amber a piece of ice, with vengeance, Amber spit out the ball and handed it back to Peyton. What the heck?!
I have always said "this child is going to be the death of me" from the moment she was born she came out fighting. Hopefully one day I can get her fighting for what is right and she will use that energy to change the world! In the mean time... look out for her at the playground!