And the word of the day is...

NOOOOOOOOO! To get the appropriate pronunciation though, you must shout it out using your upper register, and be sure to add just the right amount of 'whine' to get it right. Joey must have yelled NOOOOOOOOO at me 347 times this morning before I finally decided he needed to go back to bed for a long winter's (or summer's) nap. I offered him milk, he said NO. So I switched it to juice, he said NO. He asked for toast. I made it. He said NO. He handed me his new Elmo book. I started to read it. He said NO. He asked to go outside. Outside we went. He said NO. NO bubbles. NO sandbox. NO water. NO trucks. NO NO NO. Finally I said, "do you want to go night night?" And he said NO. At this point I reminded myself that I am the adult, he is the child, and off he went. And he's sound asleep. In the meantime I'm gearing up for the next round of trying to tame the toddler...