Defiance

I don't know if it's the move or what, but Penny is being little miss defiant. Yesterday we were all in the back yard and she kept trying to run around to the front. Since our yard is not fenced in and we live on a rather busy street, I didn't want her doing that. I asked her to stop, then told her to stop and she kept on doing it. She'd pause mid-stride, look back, laugh, and keep right on going. Like it was a big game. I told her we'd have to go inside if she did it again. She did it again. So we went inside, whereupon she cried. I let her cry for a minute (while comforting her a bit) and then told her we could go back outside if she stayed where mommy and daddy were. She made one more attempt to go back around, but did stop and come back when I told her to (and threatened to take her back inside).

The other thing she's doing, and she did a lot of it today, is to take her pants and underwear off and just run around half naked. I'll catch her taking her pants off and tell her to stop or tell her no and she'll just keep right on going and then I can't get her to put them back on, or let me put them back on. It becomes this giant battle of wills and I usually end up trying to physically force her clothes back on. But I don't want to hurt her and she's really squirmy and I end up just so frustrated and feeling like an idiot 32 (almost) year old who can't control a 2 year old. I can handle a lot about motherhood, but I swear the defiance stuff just really gets to me. Unfortunately, from what I understand, that's pretty much what life is like with a 2 and 3 year old. I hear 4 isn't so bad, but 4 seems a long way off.