Are they for real?!

Sometimes I wonder if I'm raising a baby, a toddler and a pre-schooler or if somehow I've been relocated to an alternate universe where my children are all of a sudden pre-teens.  Austin wasn't really a sassy toddler.  It was just him and me,(no siblings to compete with for attention) and he, as far as I can remember, seemed to listen wonderfully.  Nayeli has been a little more demanding.  I expect this from her, because she's my little princess.  The fact that she now defies me using complete sentences is a little disheartening.  I wonder why she's so reluctant to just come when I call her name... When I call for her a second time she yells back, "Why?"  I call her again and she says in a snobby tone, "What mama?!"  I don't think I talk to her, or anyone else like that.  Does she get it from Disney movies?  TV?  Or is this just how she is?

(She hasn't put her "cell phone" down in three days!!!)

Austin has become more of a free thinker than he was in his toddler days.  He too now questions my authority.  For anything I ask or say it seems I must have an explanation.  My least favorite thing is when I tell him not to do, or to stop doing, something he asks, "What will happen if I don't?"  It's not an unacceptable question, but I feel like he should know the answer...  a time out, or grounding from a game or toy, depending on the situation.  When he asks it feels like I can tell that he's weighing what he wants to do with the consequence.  This is probably a good skill for him to develop, but inside I'm thinking, "Do what I say because I say it.  I'm your mother and that's how it should be!"  

(Is he telling me to talk to his hand?!)

Kheaven got upset today because I wouldn't let him have a plastic bag.  He LoVeS crinkly things.  There's no way I'm letting him play with a plastic bag though.  I replaced the bag with a crinkly toy.  He was very upset and proceeded to start crawling toward the bag.  (It had the supplies I needed for cleaning out the hamster's cage in it.)  I moved it again and it was the end of him.  He pushed himself up on his arms as far as he could and threw himself over.  It was a fit.  Nine months old and throwing his first fit isn't too bad I suppose.

(Time for music lessons, already?!)

:-)  I "complain" but I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I guess I didn't expect my children to be this way so early in life, but I'll just use practice for when they're this way and their older...  I pray by then they understand respect and have enough for me to not do some (if not all) of these things.  And of course, the wonderful things that fill my heart with enormous amounts of love and joy occur more than the "teenagey" things.