Have you ever been so frustrated that you can't even speak?

This is my little Emma. I am crazy about her. She has been the light of my life for the last two and a half years and makes me laugh harder than just about anyone. And lately, she makes me so frustrated that I can't even speak.

I remember when she was only one I said to my parents, "I fear that this is going to be a clash of the titans." They asked what I meant and I explained that I thought Emma was just like me and I was pretty sure that things were going to be crazy when she got older. And so they are. I am stubborn and emotional, she is stubborn and emotional...The beauty of parenthood, at least for me, is that after a short amount of time passes the thing she did that made me crazy starts seeming pretty funny.

Lately she loves to argue with me. The other day she came up to me holding her stuffed donkey toy from Shrek and she asked me,
"Is this a horse?"
Me: "No, it's a donkey."
Emma: "No," matter of factly, "It's a horse."
Me: "No, it's a donkey."
Emma: "No, it's a horse."
Me:(exasperated) "Fine, it's a horse!"
Emma: "No, it's a donkey."

Then we were driving down the freeway:
Me: "Look Emma, there's the ocean."
Emma: "No, it's water."
Me: "Well, yeah it's water. The ocean is water."
Emma: "No. It's dist (just) water."
Me: "Right, the ocean is ... Never mind!"




Emma and Jonny playing Army after a long day of training for Jonny.



My sister, Aubrey, and I were talking the other day about how our children condition us to be mean. We try being nice and we get no results, so then we resort to being mean and things start to happen!

Today we were getting in the car to go to an appointment and we were running late.
Me: (nice mom voice) "Hurry and get in your car seat. Sit down and put your arms through."
She starts picking stuff up off the floor and talking to herself.
Me: (still nice mom voice with a little more urgency)"Emma! Hurry! We need to go!"
She looks at me with an impish grin and continues fruiting around.
Me: (wicked witch of the west voice) "EMMA! GET IN YOUR CAR SEAT NOW!!"
She turns and scrambles into her car seat and says "FINE! Mommy, tell me nice!"