I will apologise first as I seem to be more of a lurker nowadays. 

A is now 17 months and beginning to be a right little madam. She has the attitude of a teenager and doesn't listen to anything I say and hardly naps anymore during the day. If I ask her questions she says no and shakes her head. I have to tell her 'no' at least 5 times before she listens. If she doesn't get her own way, she will have a tantrum. 

today she has been an utter nightmare. Doing everything she shouldn't. I put her in her room to play earlier whilst I nipped to the loo. (There's a stair gate on her door). She started to open her drawers to pull out clothes so I told her off. She closed it and started to open another. So she was told off again and closed the drawer. So started open another one. Against as told off so decided to shut her bedroom door on me and continue opening her drawers to pull out her clothes! 

She used to be such a good little girl. Not sure whats happened!!  

Could it be the terrible twos come early?? It's a good job I have wine in the fridge! 

She's testing boundaries - stay firm and it will pass. Wine helps too xx

FM, I really hope so! E is nearly 16 months and is exactly the same. She even smiles and waves when she's about to do something she knows she's not supposed to. It feels like I spend the whole day saying no and then listening to the tantrum that follows. I thought this wasn't supposed to happen till they got to two?!!! That's why it's not called the terrible 1 & 1/2's!!!

What do you do discipline wise? I tell E no to give her the chance to stop (ha, at chance!) then if I have to tell her again I'll move her from the area/what she's doing/what she's got. It has no effect though and she even seems to think its a game and laughs. Just wondering if I'm missing something or doing something wrong? x

Sounds completely normal to me, Isla was the same at that age and at almost two she is getting better but I think that's because her understanding has come on a fair bit. Don't get me wrong she still tests the boundaries and has the biggest tantrums but we seem to be able to diffuse them a bit better now or can anticipate what will cause said tantrums. I know that you've probably tried all sorts, for the sake of your sanity, but we always try distraction techniques. So things like 'why don't you come here and play with ...instead' or 'can you hold/do this for mummy/daddy' she loves helping and feeling important. For really bad tantrums we remove her from whatever she is doing and sit her in the corner Until she says sorry. She usually does within a couple of minutes. She doesn't always understand the naughty corner as she will repeat the naughty behaviour as soon as she's apologised!

It will pass and in the meantime drink wine! xx

Discipline wise I tell her no and naughty and tap her hand (gently) when she does something she shouldn't. Like you it seems to have no effect and she constantly tests the boundaries.  She has a look when I tell her off. The 'I know you're going to tell me off, but I'm going to do it anyway' look. After I've told her, she will look at me kind of like she's peering over a pair a glasses.

It's definitely the 1 and 1/2s rather than the terrible twos!!

IIRC J only had a about a week of the terrible twos. A has been like this for a few months.

I can agree with you there MamaD! I definitely spend the majority of my day saying no. It's the only time I'm glad I decided to go back to work!!  

It was my birthday yesterday and H lined up all my cards on the window sill and within 10 seconds, they were all on the floor around A who was sat in the middle of them.

Definitely testing boundaries. When G was like this we started to use the naughty step and it worked brilliantly for us. If you dont fancy that, we also used to first let her make the decision to stop, so telling her what was going to happen ("if you keep doing that, dolly will go in the naughty cupboard so its up to you what you decide to do") and then if she carried on being naughty she would lose the toy for a day.

MaisieMoo, I didn't read your post properly and thought it said if you keep doing that, you'll go in the naughty cupboard!!!

Ha ha - i am tempted some days!!

I feel your pain! At 20 months we are definitely into the terrible twos...

We have recently started time out which I think is helping a bit, but I'm afraid it doesn't really improve for a while (after terrible twos is threenagers...)

I find gin helps ;-)