Let the Screaming Commence

Things here in Beantown are going pretty well. Nick is adorable, Emma is cantankerous, and Calvin is hilarious. So everyone seems to be occupied with being fun and happy right now. Emma is in her terrible two’s and she has such anger issues. She reminds me so much of myself that it is kind of ridiculous. She has taken to yelling when she doesn’t like something. For example, naptime. Emma used to take her nap on the sofa. It involved a long process of me having to prepare her a cup of milk and then laying down with her until she fell asleep. Then I would have to get Calvin and go upstairs and couldn’t come back down for fear of waking her. Plus if Calvin cried at all, even a tiny bit, during her falling asleep, she wouldn’t fall asleep. I decided that it was just ridiculous to jump through the hoops anymore…especially since I found her one day watching reruns of “I love Lucy”…the squirt wasn’t even napping she was just making us suffer upstairs so she could have some alone time with the plasma. So we have taken to napping in our crib for nap time. She has been napping in her crib for a week now and everyday I put her in her crib with a cup of water and some books and her stuffed animals and explain to her that she doesn’t have to sleep but she needs to relax and can read books or play. And every day she cries and screams and then one by one I hear her throw her books out of her bed. And then her cup. And she screams “I will not take a nap in my bed.” Over and over and over. How fun. Last night while we were driving she was screaming at Nicholas for driving “Daddy not drive, Emma drive!” Yes okay, lets pull over and the two of you can trade places. I was shopping with her for Father’s Day and I kept saying I was going to tickle her; so she’s screaming “I will not be tickled!” So here’s my question…am I raising a spoiled bratty little girl or is this normal? Its hard to find some middle ground here. I don’t want to just let the screaming and demanding go unpunished but I also don’t want her to feel as though I am beating her all of the time. Do you know what I mean? Please, someone give me some helpful insight into this.