Testing Limits

For the last few days, I have felt like I've been on an episode of Supernanny. You know how they have the massive time out battles, where they have to keep putting the kid back in time out? Yeah, that was us yesterday. He thought it was so funny, and spankings were not changing his mind about staying in time out. I finally won the battle, and he did his time out, but is it really a victory when you are SO exhausted by the end??
Ryan is pushing every boundary and testing every limit. Seriously, this kid is wearing me out! I got a much needed nap today (and so did Ryan), which really helped my physical and mental state of mind.
We are really working on teaching him that no is not negotiable and that throwing tantrums or whining will not change our minds! Now--this has always been the case, but it seems like he needs to get the picture again.
And you just want to hit your head against the wall, when Ryan tells me, "It makes God sad when I disobey?" And you tell him yes, and then he goes and disobeys again not one second later! I'm sure that God gets just as frustrated with me when I sin and continually fail to listen to Him. This is just one more instance where parenthood has made me even more thankful for God's love and patience.
We are praying for wisdom in this situation and for God's direction in raising this little boy. Because we definitely can't do it on our own!