Oh Gavin!

Today was a trying day disciplining Gavin.  He was not listening and doing things on purpose like crowding Liam when we asked him not to, making loud noises just to get attention, running inside the house, etc.
The kicker is that Gavin has now started talking back to us.  When we tell him "Don't run in the house" he replies "But, I'm ....." and gives us a reason/excuse for what he's doing.  Nick has been telling him that is called arguing and he cannot argue with us.  It's a constant struggle.  He has an excuse for everything nowadays.  When I was young, I would get so frustrated when my parents (particularly my dad--sorry for calling you out!) would tell me to do something, I would ask why and they would say "Because I said so".  Nothing made me more upset and I swore that I would always give an explanation to my kids.  However, I totally understand.  It gets to the point when you just want compliance without any questions.  I have always told Gavin why he shouldn't do things- because they're dangerous, not safe, not nice, etc.  hoping that eventually he would see the pattern.  I won't ask him to do things just because, he needs to trust that when I tell him something it's for his safety and/or good manners.  Well, I'm still giving him reasons, he's just not complying as he used to.  Enter the terrible 3's I guess.

We did have some hysterical moments in this discipline full day.

As I made lunch I told Gavin, "You need to behave" and Gavin replied "What's have?".  He thought I was asking him to BE-have.  At dinner he was misbehaving at the dinner table so we told him he would not get a treat after dinner if he continued.  He continued. So we said no treats.
As I was taking the cookies out of the oven he said:  "All big boys eat cookies."
Me: Big boys get cookies when they behave.
Gavin: I am being have.

So, we explained to him again what "behaving" means and that he was not behaving well earlier in the day.  How he did not listen to us and was rude and mean to us and Liam and that meant he did not earn a special treat. To which Gavin quickly replied "Don't argue with me.....Big boys always get cookies"
I tried hard to not laugh in front of him.

I kept making cookies and he kept asking for some.  I said he could have strawberries or a smoothie instead. He declined and said, "It's just...a cookie would be perfect for me".
Yes, we know.
We stuck our ground and he did not get a cookie.  After his bedtime routine, I told him tomorrow would be a good day and he replied, "yeah and I'll behave so I get a cookie".
So we'll see what tomorrow brings.