No means no, unless you're two.

We have recently stumbled across a new challenge in raising our daughter - she has no concept of discipline. She doesn't grasp anger. She laughs if we get upset with her.

Uh.

This weekend was a challenge (read: I love wine). Not only did she learn that by climbing onto the back of the couch, she could lean over the counter into the kitchen and turn the faucet in the sink on and off and on and off, etc., but she also decided that it's now super fun to chew food up and then spit it back out. And I don't mean the open mouth and allow food to fall out maneuver, I mean actually SPIT it out. We were at dinner last night with some friends, and I was engaged in conversation with someone across the table from me. While I was listening intently, hunks of chewed up tortilla chip flew through the air from the direction of my child's mouth and actually hit me in the face.

Oh yeah. So awesome. Nothing adds to a conversation quite like projectile chip spit.

There are other issues associated with Lily's inability to understand when we want her to stop doing something, too. For instance, whenever we walk out of the house to go anywhere, she immediately assumes that a game of tag is immediately necessary. She never walks directly to the car. There is a chase involved every time. Her joy is really endearing, but having to chase darling daughter all over the place relentlessly gets a wee bit old.

And bedtime! Oh God, please don't get me started on bedtime. Once asleep, she is angelic. However, the process of getting her to sleep is a PAIN. She does not know how to lie down and go to sleep. She can be lulled to sleep, but she cannot initiate the process herself. We are wearing ourselves thin reading books on this topic, trust me.

This has become a big whinefest. Argh. Essentially, we have reached our next stage of parenting - how to be the voice of authority. Wish us luck.

Because I said so, that's why.