The Terrible THREES?

I have obviously been disillusioned by the mainstream media touting, 'the terrible twos, the TERRIFIC threes'. What, come again?! After what really seemed to be a year of the terrible twos, I realized that they weren't so terrible once S. turned three years, one month and two weeks, or something like that. Now that S. can talk so clearly that everyone can understand what he's saying, I wish he couldn't talk at all. After a year of, "What did you say honey? Mommy can't understand you.", we have now entered the phase of 'I wish I didn't understand him because I can't believe he just said that!' It is like having a 13 year-old in the house. S. loves to say the opposite of everything I say, which was funny when I did it as a child, I'm sure, but not so funny now that I'm the parent! If I ask him to sit in his chair so we can eat breakfast, lunch or dinner he says," NO! I am NOT going to sit in my chair!!!" That child has seriously made an indentation on the bottom step because he's been there so many times. I don't know what else to do. It isn't helping much that it's been in the single-digits around here, so if there is no reason to go out, I'd rather keep the boys warm and toasty at home.

S. can also get into trouble in a matter of minutes. This kid is crafty, sly...you get the point. Yesterday, I put him in his room so I could put R. down for his nap. I won't bore you with exactly what he did to warrant putting him in his room when I can't devote full attention to him, but let me say the kid just can't be left alone in the house, even when I'm simply upstairs and he's downstairs. So I hear a loud noise as I'm changing R. I go into S.'s room, and that's when I see it. He pushed his nightstand table across the room so he could step on it to turn the main light on. My son is obsessed with lights. Now I did not leave my son in the dark, I assure you. However, I only turned his lamp on, and according to S., that is just not good enough. I disciplined S. immediately. I put him back into his room. No more than two minutes later, he is doing it AGAIN! So now his nightstand is LOCKED in his closet. Along with the cute baseball garbage can he used earlier in the week to stand on. At the rate we're going S. will soon be sleeping on the floor. Which begs me to ponder this question, 'Why in the hell did I spend my husband's bonus on a child's furniture???? Yah, he was my first, maybe my last, my everything. But come on! Make no mistake, his brother will be getting furniture from Target if he's lucky. Or maybe R. will get S.'s furniture. Soon! I was the baby of the family, and just hated when I had to pay for my brother's prior mistakes, but what can you do? I have posted a picture of S.'s room prior to him taking the chair rail down, it's now glued to the wall, as well as when he still had all the furniture in his room. What can I do, guys? Is this normal? I'll let you know if I make it through tomorrow's snow storm with my sanity intact. Yep, snowstorm, which means we will be in the house all day and night. Let the fun begin!