The Terrible "NO!"s

Let's just clear up some misconceptions about "The Terrible 2's" once and for all. The whole "The Terrible 2's" thing was totally thought up just to keep parents at the end of their ropes hanging on a little bit longer in the hopes that someday, things will get easier. This is so not true. It only gets worse and worse and worse.... For me the so called "Terrible 2's" started around 18 months and are still going strong...stronger by the day, in fact. We have enjoyed a particularly misery filled two weeks now due to the fact that Carter and Reese keep passing some summer bug back and forth and are therefore exceptionally crabby.

I have decided, in light of my discoveries, to rename the "Terrible 2's" the Terrible No's. Reason being, Carter's favorite word and pastime is to contradict EVERYTHING he says, just minutes after saying it...timing it so perfectly that it just about brings me to tears after only a few hours of watching him each day. Let me give you a few examples from this morning:

Exhibit A: Carter whines (for literally half and hour) to go out and play in his sandbox. I have to get Reese out of bed and fed first so as soon as that is finished we go right now. I open it up, put all his toys in and start to dig with the kids. They are quickly covered in sand. 3 minutes into this adventure, Carter says, "I'm done, I want to go inside". What the @#***$#@????

Exhibit B: We then decide to go check the garden to see if there are any veggies that need to be picked, but on the way there...a mere 45 second walk, he decides, "NO, I don't want to go to the garden."

Exhibit C: Carter tells me "I want to play with bubbles". Well I don't have any but I know you can make them really fast, so I whip up a batch in a couple of minutes and we're all out on the deck making some bubbles. Carter has a wand and little tray that I pour the bubble mix into, and Reese is just chewing on a wand since she could pretty much care less. Her apathy suddenly changes when she sees Carter making some bubbles and she crawls over to stick the tip of her wand into the bubble mix. Carter immediately freaks out, dumps the entire thing upside-down on the deck and screams, "I don't want to play bubbles with Reese!"

I fill the pool up in a desperate attempt to salvage this morning and they do play in there for about 30 minutes. Then we go inside and it's time for lunch, leading us to
Exhibit D: Carter, "I want a waffle"....I start making him a waffle and an egg for Reese. Carter: "I want an egg. I don't want any waffle". In the end I made him both and he only ate a little bit of each and left the rest on his plate. Reese however ate 2 full eggs and also gave herself an egg bath...