survival mode

Lately, I have been so busy that I feel like my head is spinning. When I sat down to think about what is taking up all of my time, it came to me.........dealing with Madeline and her fifty thousand temper tantrums a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The past few weeks with her have been pretty rough. She hasn't been feeling well which has no doubt made it worse, but she is just so high maintenance right now. Can anyone say terrible two's?! Everything is a battle. Foods she's always loved she now hates. She walks around the house all day crying that she is hungry and EVERYTHING you try to give her to eat she refuses to touch (or depending on her mood, throws across the room). Bedtime and naptime are and endless battle of her asking for a drink and then refusing it, followed by her asking for her blanky and then refusing it and then crying two minutes later because she doesn't have a drink or a blanky. Do you see where this is going? Everything is pretty much like this all day long. Today at the gym, she begged me to take her potty. So, we go to the bathroom and she wants to do everything but sit on the potty....play with the lockers, look in the showers, wash her hands, etc. So, I take her back to the playroom and the first thing she does is start screaming that she needs to go potty. Hello? I just had you in the bathroom and you refused to go near the toilet. So rather than give in to her, I tell her no and explain that we just tried that and the result is her on the floor kicking and screaming for the next ten minutes. Every now and then we see a little glimpse of her fun, silly personality but there is a lot of a battle of the wills going on in between. Ryan was home with her for a few hours on Sunday and was so burnt out by the time I got home. At least I have him to feel my pain :) I know that I have to stay consistent with her and that this phase will pass, but in the meantime it is so draining. I remember when Emma was two and she would sit in the car and chant "I hate you, I hate you" over and over again in this really mean little voice...thank you God that she outgrew that one!