Mommy, You Be HAPPY!!

As my wonderful husband can attest to, these 4 words make me want to run screaming for the hills. Seriously, they drive me nuts. And that's all I've been hearing today. And now Jake says it so much that Emma is starting to say it. It's a little funnier when she says it, though, because, well, she's 2. Anyway, this is what happens...

Jake knows how to press my buttons. Whether that's a conscious thing remains to be seen. But boy does he push. It kind of reminds me of this show on Noggin called "The Upside Down Show" which is about kids using an imaginary remote control to control what happens on the TV ("...whoa, we're jumping! You must have hit the JUMP button..."). But it's a little more like this:

Mommy: Jacob, please don't ____________ (insert bad behavior here).
Jacob: (Committs bad behavior)
Mommy: (loses control)
Narrator: Whoa, look at Mommy! Jacob must have hit the bad behavior button! Look at her go!

Anyway. After I lose control, Jacob starts whining "Mommy, you be HAPPY!" At this point I try to explain to Jacob that when he ____________ (insert bad behavior here), it makes Mommy unhappy. So he commits the bad behavior again, I lose control again, and he says "Mommy, you be HAPPY!" I've tried ignoring him, I've tried explaining it to him, but he seems hell bent on wanting me to BE happy but not doing things that he knows will MAKE me happy.

And so I vent, and the day goes on...