My Way Or Yours?

Eva is becoming much more expressive when she tries to communicate. When she falls or hurts herself, she doesn't often cry, but she will let out a mournful "owie!" to let us know it hurt. If something smells, she'll wrinkle her little nose, wave her hand in front of her face, and exclaim "phew!" loudly. She's also becoming a lot more assertive about what she wants. Whereas before she used to eat whatever we gave her and go down for a nap with no struggle, now she's starting to develop pretty strong opinions about it. She's gotten picky about her food, refusing to eat dinner and then asking for a snack. I'm pretty firm that whatever we are eating for dinner, that's what she gets. I won't force her to eat, but I won't make something else, either. If she's hungry, she can go back and eat her dinner. She definitely fights me on this at times, and gets pretty upset, but she also knows I won't reward a tantrum. With another child on the way, it just gets too crazy if you have to make something different for each person. I don't want to start bad habits, and I'm not running a restaurant. Sleep is another issue Eva has decided to get assertive about. The other day we visited friends at their campsite, and tried to get her to take a nap in their camper. No dice. She was exhausted, but preferred to have a meltdown rather than sleep. We finally took her for a drive and she collapsed after 20 minutes of screaming in the car. I guess we mess with her routine at our own peril. She's started occasionally fighting us about going to bed at home, too, but these battles don't tend to last very long. An extra hug or rubbing her back for a minute is usually all it takes, since her body clock is so used to going to sleep at 12:30 and 8:30pm.