"You're Wearing Me Out"

Yes, that is Logan's latest saying. Apparently, I wear him out...but I have to in order to get him to nap. We were walking out of Target one day last week and he said "Mommy, you're wearing me out." I about fell over laughing. Where does he hear this stuff?

So far this summer we have been to Sea World, movies, water/splash parks, bounce houses, library storytimes, and countless other places to stay busy. Otherwise, I swear this child would watch movies all.day.long. And there has been a day or two where that is what we have done. If that makes me a bad mother because I allow my child to watch TV for more than one hour per day (gasp) then so be it. At least it's educational--the child loves Nick Jr. and Baby Genius (thanks T-Luv), how can those be bad? Sure, there's a Scooby Doo or Tom & Jerry thrown in there occasionally, but it's not some violent cartoon or Sponge Bob or something like that.

Anywho, Logan has been an absolute blast this summer...except for the back talk issue, which I'll get to later. We can have actual conversations, I can reason with him, he can tell me what he wants/doesn't want to do. He's a completely different child from last summer. We had fun last summer, sure, but he was still very much a baby and needed me for a lot. Not so much this year. He's potty trained, able to entertain himself, and get what he needs for the most part. The child can even put in DVDs to get a movie started (especially if I told him no). He loves going to the park and swimming. He just started swimming lessons, which he is loving so far.

Back to the back talk issue. Not fun. We are in the middle of a horrible phase where he thinks he can talk/yell back and actually get away with it. Up until now, he has been pretty easy. I think we got out of the 2's without having "terrible" issues. But 3 is a whole other story, in my opinion. He hit 3 and he discovered he could argue, slam doors, and place demands/refuse demands. Time outs didn't phase him, being sent to his room worked temporarily, but let me tell you after the first time this child got a spanking--he was pretty heavenly...for a couple days. Spankings don't happen a lot, but when the limit has been reached and nothing else is working/getting his attention, they happen (I know, gasp again). But the back talk hasn't really stopped. It's still a daily issue and I am sick of it. Now we are threatening to take privileges away (TV, gymnastics) and he doesn't like that at all. We haven't had to take anything away yet but I'm sure it will happen. I'm hoping he's starting to get the hint that talking back isn't going to fly around here since he's been corrected over and over and over again in multiple ways. His newest thing is "I don't love you anymore." Wow. I thought we still had years before we heard that.