Aaron and the Terrible 2's

I guess I never understood why everyone called them the terrible 2's.  By the time Mudgie was 2, he had already thrown more tantrums that I thought possible, and things only got better as his second year went on.  Apparently, Aaron wants to school us in this terminology.

For the past few weeks, he has colossal meltdowns and power showdowns with no apparent trigger, but bedtime has become particularly bad.  Aaron will scream and cry and often not even allow me to put his jammies on.  We end up sitting in the chair in his room while I sing to him.  He will continue to scream until I lift up my shirt to offer him by belly button (I know, I have strange children who love my belly button).  I can see how much he wants to resist and keep on screaming, but I swear that thing is like a tranquilizer to my kids!  Try as he might, within a few seconds, one hand goes to my belly while the other thumb goes in his mouth.  After a song or 2 he is back to his happy self and we continue with the normal bedtime routine.

Mudgie is working on learning all of his letters, and can now identify most of them.  He's been asking me how things are spelled, too, but is still not very good at identifying what sounds belong to what letters.  He is however, curious about school, and about not going to daycare anymore.  As we were driving to Karen's this week, we had this conversation:
Mudgie: Mommy, when will I not go to K-K's anymore?
Me: Next fall you'll start school so then you won't go to K-K's anymore.  
Mudgie: I don't want to go to school!
Me:  Do you not want to go to school because you want to keep going to K'K's?
Mudgie: No, I want to stay home with you, Mommy.
Me: But, Mudgie, Mommy has to go to work.  You know why I go to work, right?
Mudgie: To make money.
Me: Yes.  And why do we need money?
Mudgie: To pay for our house and our food and my college!
Me: Yes!  Because if we had no money for food we'd be very very hungry because we'd have nothing to eat, right?
Mudgie: Yes, Mommy.
Me: And with no money for our house we'd be very very cold because we'd have no place to sleep at night, right?

Mudgie: Yes, Mommy.

Me: And with no money for your college you'd be very very unemployable, right?

Mudgie: Yes, Mommy.

It's never too early to teach them some lessons!