Street Fighter

What do you do when your baby is hitting other people and other people's kids!!! She's only 11 months old, but she understands, boy.
If I say "no" and frown, she does it again, looking right at me! Then again. And then again. I try to show her to be gentle but it seems like she is physically incapable of being gentle right now.
I don't want to just let her go at it but it seems like she thinks me saying "no" is a game.
Or a challenge. (dom dom doooommm).
Just kidding.
Apparently the worst thing I can do is make a big deal about it. According to Pediatrician Karen Sadler from Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, babies have a very natural desire to see and explore much more than their physical and verbal abilities will allow and this makes them frustrated. And they express this frustration in forms of hitting, biting and temper tantrums.
I believe that, as well as frustration, these things (except maybe the temper tantrum) could also be excitement. When she's playing with someone, sometimes she gets this wild look on her face as she takes a big breath and a tremor goes through her body. She breaks into a huge grin and it seems like her body can't contain it all so she just has to whack somebody!

Well, all explanations aside, it's still not good for my daughter to go around hitting her friends, and mine. But Sadler says that if the hitting receives a lot of attention, it will just get worse. I know this first hand as Ms. Foo just adds little yelps to the hits if I raise my voice. So, Sadler's advice is to say "no" once, remove the baby from the situation and go on to some other activity. It's fruitless to keep saying "no", get a hit, "no", hit, "no", hit.
And to remember that the behavior will usually improve as your child's verbal skills develop.
Whew.
Now, what about throwing cheerios on the floor and dumping milk out on the high chair tray? What is that an expression of?
Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!