2 year olds are egocentric creatures that truely believe they are the sun and we are the planets that revolve around them. I've known this, having studied this in child psychology, but knowing this in theory doesn't stop one from choking in horror as the egocentricity gets played out on a daily basis. This culminated in the penultimate command from the little tyke last week.
"call me god".
"No, I'm not going to and I'd like you to get into the shower"
"say, 'god, please get into the shower'"
"No! And I'm counting to 10. 1..."
"mummy, say 'i'm counting to 10 god' "

That, was last week. This week, beginning with Sunday, has been rather testing, as the little one has decided to, well, let's just say, she has been doing the greek goddess on me. jealousy, tantrum throwing, screaming, pinching, biting, kicking, pushing...the list goes on. In just 3 days, I've had to punish the little goddess multiple times a day and IT GETS BLOODY TIRING! Which makes me ponder, why can't they choose to obey? choose to be good? choose to listen to their parents? The answer is glaringly obvious. We are fallen creatures who have to LEARN to be good, and parents are the agents of change. If we fail to correct, the fallen creature will fall further and it all rests on my small shoulders. And here i am, typing at 1 am, after yet another night interrupted by screaming and crying...i actually can't remember when i had an uninterrupted night's sleep...seems like that happened in another life. The only difference is, tonight i decided to join her and cry with her, and when i started, i couldn't stop. it felt like i hadn't cried for a long time and i needed to get it out of the system. catharsis. I am still an emotional wreck, but typing this makes me feel a lot better. i hope i sleep a lot better after this too.