Pushing the Boundaries!

     Yes, that's right...Noah has already begun the terrible phase of pushing Mama to see how far he can go. He turns 7 months old in a couple of weeks and I am really struggling with ideas on how to handle this. I never thought that I would have to deal with these issues quite so soon, but I guess so. For example, I will try to feed him and if it's something he doesn't want, he will smack me. And no, I'm not exaggerating by any means...he used to turn his head away and grunt...and that was my cue that he was done, but now he smacks me. I'm not really even sure where that came from...Daddy has taught him how to high five and perhaps that's where the smacking motion originated from but I know he does it purposefully. He already knows what the word "no" means...I know this because when I say it he stops doing what I've asked him not to do and refocuses his interest elsewhere. *sighs*  I just don't know...I don't know whether or not to smack his hand...I've always thought 7 months was WAY too early for that...but if he knows what the world "no" means and refused to listen, I'm not sure what else to do. He is too young to understand the "time out" concept right now, so that wouldn't be effective. I definitely need to pray about this a lot more...that the Lord will guide me in how to hand this situation. He is still such a loveable little boy and very rarely tries to push the limits. I'm sure stages like this will increasingly get worse as the terrible twos approach us, but I'm just worthless when it comes to punishing him. It breaks my heart to have to think about it...but I know that there will come a day when I won't have a choice...and the only thing that's going to get me through it is the Lord's guiding hand!  Anyways, thanks for listening to my rambling today...I just needed to get those thoughts out there and if anyone has any advice or a similar situation they've already been through...HELP! :-)  Thanks you guys!