Dealing with a Two-Year Old

Today I was trying to clean Oliver off at the sink after lunch and he kept pulling away from me, so I told him that when he pulled his arms it made it hard for me to clean him.

For some reason Rachel decided she needed to contribute and she corrected me, saying, "No, Mom, you should say, 'It's too hard for me because you're escaping away.' That's what you're supposed to say."

I don't know why she thought that would be so much better.


Yesterday I let Ollie and Rachel drink their banana milk with a straw, which was an exciting thing for them. Rachel kept taking her straw out and playing with it, though, so I warned her that if she took it out again, I would take away her straw. She answered, "Well, there's a big problem. I don't care if you take it away. That's what the problem is for you - I don't even want a straw. So that's the problem. If you take it away, I'll still be happy."

Well, she did take her straw out again, and I did take it away from her, and she acted very cheerful about the whole thing. She was probably faking it.

I just thought it was funny that she kept saying what a "big problem" she was going to cause for me, like "aha, Mom, do you see how your discipline system is totally failing here?"

Is she going to get it all out of her system now, or should I be extremely nervous for her teenage years?