Stubborn Twos

I can't believe next week is the last week before Christmas. My goodness I am behind this year. I've been keeping up with my baking duties, but I have definitely fallen behind on a few others. Shopping, cleaning, cooking, wrapping, sending cards and decorating to name a few.  Can you tell I'm feeling overwhelmed? 

Timmy has been less than helpful with our holiday preparations and the threat of Santa Claus leaving coal has no power this year. In reality, the promise of Santa not visiting is probably more motivation than deterrent. I'm looking forward to those wonderful years where I can keep him in line with the idle threat of a jolly all-knowing elf withholding toys due to misbehavior.  In the meantime, I'm pretty sure that his first full sentence will be "Timmy, get off of the counter/couch/desk/table and stop spitting water on the cat/tree/toy/wood pile/ Daddy's clothes."

I am trying my best to embrace every stage, but my goodness this particular one is driving me quickly to the brink of insanity. If I had a quarter each time I said "no" "don't do it" or "put it down" I would be able to hire a nanny. This child has a stubborn streak and is asserting all of his burgeoning two year old independence.  I'm hoping that we survive the terrible twos intact and that we can thoroughly enjoy the terrific threes in 2017.