how to cope

i'm not stating. i'm asking.

so i told you months ago that izzy has been a contrarian lately (how can i convey that in a halloween costume?), and nothing has changed. if she's mad at us, she will take a normally well-loved stuffed toy and chuck it. but then she screams for it as if we were the dastardly ones that threw it. or she asks for something and then say "no ____!" it's quite frustrating. i've tried firmly explaining how annoying this is, but she screams at me to stop. guh! point izzy.

since she is 2.5 years old now, she has had tantrums galore. half the time, i feel i can handle it and really do handle it. it's been a combo of timeouts, firm stares and walking away. of course, this is only do-able at home and with her safety in mind. i've also tried reasoning with her when she is screaming unintelligible rants, but she just ends up screaming over me now. so...point izzy.

one of the most dangerous things she does now is run around in parking lots trying to get away from me, as if i silently initiated a chase game by looking at her. it scares me so bad that i bark at her to stop, which i'm sure totally makes me look like "one of those moms." meanwhile, she just laughs. duh for points.

oh yeah. she has smacked me in the face a few times too. horribly shocking and infuriating, because i myself have never done that to someone. at least, not that i know of.

so i beg you experienced moms and successful moms and knowledgeable nannies/sitters--how do i get my child to listen to me? am i experiencing a phase, or is my kid just out-right naughty? i'll be eating chocolate waiting for your advice.

i've been told (and so has someone else)

so i've been m.i.a. on the blogosphere for a long, long time. i have no excuse. i don't have a pressing job or active lifestyle. in fact, i do the same thing most days--shower, eat, hang out with izzy, run minor errands, cook, clean up messes. oh yeah, i watch t.v. and waste time on facebook too. don't judge. i'm admitting i am a slug.

i guess i'll give you a brief rundown of one particular life event of late.

mid-august: pack up seattle apartment. *we do not check out with landlord, because he happens to be out of town. (this foreshadowing.) return to utah from seattle summer internship

late-august: got ripped off by seattle slumlord on deposit fee. he claimed we did not clean and left the apartment "soiled beyond normal wear and tear." bunch of crock. fought on phone. then, finally agreed to send someone over to clean to get the rest of deposit back.

early-sept: slumlord pretends that bro-in-law did not call in time to go clean. stiffs us our arrangement and deposit.

mid-sept: contact BBB and slumlord's property management company. lodged complaint about slumlords cheaty-cheat face. had proof that on inspection checklist that EVERYTHING was ok, so there should not have been a $120 cleaning fee charge. got email from prop. mgr. that we would get our $ back. semi-celebration!

late-sept: received check in mail! ha slumlord! take that!

so i did get an email from said slumlord that he was in the right for charging us, but out of courtesy was gonna give us our $ back. hmmm...if he wanted to be so courteous, he shouldn't have been a jerk when we asked him what he was charging us a cleaning fee for and just given us our $ back when we asked for it initially. my guess is that he wanted to stick it to us one last time (in his own dumb way), even though i know he was told by his boss that it needed to be returned per the proof we had from his check-out inspection.

we are now $120 happier. lesson learned-we will never leave an apartment without having done a physical walk-thru inspection.