Don't be fooled by that face...

Yesterday was a real pisser of a day. In addition to house-budgeting BS and a little in-law friction, the smallest member of my family bared his horns and cloven hooves.

Over the past couple days we've been hit-and-miss on morning naps. (Meaning 45 minutes instead of his usual 2 hours). I'm thinking he may be working his way up to dropping a nap, but if days like yesterday become standard then we'll lose the morning nap over my cold and lifeless body.

In any case, he didn't nap well for his dad yesterday morning so when I showed up for lunch he was - well, let's call it like it is - he was a whining mass of brattiness. There was no help for it, he needed to go down for a nap - even if it was lunchtime with mom and way too early for an afternoon nap. So we trucked upstairs for our pre-sleepytime ritual of playing on the bed. But our Mr. Dylan decided that he needed to take a walk on the bed right up to the edge. Thus began the battle of the wills.

I told him that he needed to sit down and got a devil's grin in response. So we tried sitting him down. Only for him to pop back up like a jack-in-the-box with a hellish gleam in his eye. He was DARING us to get him to keep his butt positioned on the mattress. After multiple jack-in-the-boxes, I decided that perhaps our old standby of ignoring might help. So I told him that mommy didn't play with boys who don't listen and rolled over and showed him my back. At which point the little sh!t tried to rip my lips off, pull my hair out in giant handfuls and give me a few extra airholes in my nose. So while the ignoring was very effective in upsetting him - it didn't quite provoke the reaction I'd hoped for. Off to bed then...

Naive as I am, I decided to go ahead and do the pre-naptime holding since I hadn't gotten to see much of him. Unfortunately, I forgot that I was wearing a scoop-necked shirt. I know better than to wear scoop-necks pre-sleepytime. You know those kids who like to rub tags between their fingers? My kid likes to rub skin between his finger-NAILS. It's no bueno. Thus continued the abuse. The pinching led to slapping and more hair-pulling...and it all ultimately led to one VERY.PISSED.OFF.MOMMY. Grown-up that I am, I just laid him in his bed (if a little less lovingly than usual) and exited the room - then exited the house like a demon was on my heels wondering why I'd ever thought I wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom...all the while chanting, "I love my son...I just don't like him very much right now."

This all led to wondering at what age the naughty step becomes a viable option. A girlfriend of mine posted a video of her two-year-old on the naughty step, so I know it should work by then. Moms, a little help? At what age do they respond to time-outs?

Regardless, last night G informed me that it's my fault that Dylan's a proponent of domestic violence. I apparently sealed my fate when I bought his first wife-beater...