Respect

Respect.  There is no such thing in a two-year-old's mind.  Mommy and Daddy are here to serve.  End of story.  The extent of Hannah's respect for her parents goes about as far as saying "Please" and "Thank you."  We're trying to teach her that she needs to be respectful and that Mommy and Daddy make the decisions, not her.  When she says something rude, like "Go walk away" (which she says when she doesn't want us directing her in some way), we'll tell her, "Hannah, you don't talk to Mommy and Daddy like that."  Or when she says "No" (which is virtually every other word out of her mouth), we'll tell her that she doesn't say "No" to Mommy and Daddy.  Or when she tries to tell us how it's going to be (such as she's playing now, not doing what we told her to do), we tell her that Mommy and Daddy make the rules, not her.  We're doing our best to teach her about respect and that she is not the boss.

It's not working.

Hannah has turned around our attempts and aimed them at us.  Several times in the past few days, when I tell Hannah to do (or not do) something that she doesn't want to do (or not do), such as go wash her hands for dinner, she'll say, "Don't talk uh me like that."  I'm sure she's thinking that if we can tell her not to talk to us in a certain way or with certain words, she can just as well tell us that.  Not so, dear.  Not so.  And so the quest for respect continues, a battle to be fought another day.  And another...

But how can you really get upset at this face?