Nachi's pointless rants and recollections

I was going through the older posts in my blog and I realized that most of the ones about my son are positive ones.
I mean, yes, he is a very good kid, but it's not always that way.

There are times, like right now for example while he is trying to catch me with a piece of string and tie me down until I scream, that I want to strangle him.
Obviously, I don't want to harm my child, but it gets to that point where I think to myself "wtf did I get myself into by having a child?!"

I try to set rules and guidelines, but I am also of the belief that children need to be children so I let him do his own thing as well.

For example, I will allow him to draw pretty pictures with markers on his own body or clothing, but I will not allow him to do it on the walls. My reasoning behind it is, the walls belong to all of us, it's something we should respect, but his clothes are his and I don't care if they get stained. He's the one that's going to have to wear them not me.

When it comes to mealtime, we never force him to eat everything. Yes, we encourage him to finish all of the yumminess daddy and mommy worked so hard to make, but he is a such a good healthy eater anyway, so it really doesn't matter if he didn't finish all of the vegetables in his plate once in a while.

What drives me insane though is when he starts playing with food. I loathe it!
Just eat the damn banana dude! You do not have to use the tail of your toy airplane to cut it into pieces...

Recently he has gotten to the point where he likes to yell back. I am not afraid or ashamed to admit that I have raised my voice at him. I refuse to be ordered around by a three year old and my mean voice usually demands attention and respect. But, not too long ago, I heard him yell at Ronald when he asked him to clean something up.
It went something like this:

Ronald: "Luka, go put (insert toy here) away."
Luka: "no.."
Ronald: "Luka, go put (insert toy here again) away please."
Luka: "No!"
Ronald: "Luka carajo guarda ese juguete ahora antes que me moleste!" (Spanish daddy getting angry)
Luka: "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I couldn't help but laugh, very quietly of course, but I also didn't like that Luka was yelling back. I didn't intervene, I usually don't, unless Ronald comes and asks for help. Then I have to put my angry voice to work to get things done.

So yes, raising this little boy is beautiful, I love that he is his own person that doesn't always agree with me. I mean, I won't admit this to him now, but I am glad that he questions things and pushes boundaries. I want him to carry this with him until he is an adult. Never conform, always ask the why behind anything.

Still, he drives me nuts at least once a day. As he gets older, he finds new ways to test my temper, and the more he does it, the meaner I seem to get. I have to remind myself that I love this child, I carried this child in my now stretch-marked belly for nine months and it was all worth it. Otherwise we might both end up in the front page of all major newspapers saying that some crazy lady hung her kid by the feet while she started chanting to the moon to release the evil spirits from him.
Or something crazy like that...