My DD will be 3 in a few weeks. We had a pretty easy time with age 2, she wasn't perfect and had her fair share of behavior issues, but we were mostly able to deal with them. About 2 weeks ago, it was like a light switched and she's become a nightmare. She does pretty much every annoying behavior you can think of - extreme tantrums for the tiniest things, stalling like crazy, so much whining, refusing to listen, and lately I've caught her even saying mean things to other kids and almost mowing down a baby on the playground (!). She tests us constantly, which I can deal with when we're in a safe place, but her latest "fun" is to ignore us when we tell her to stop or slow down when we're out walking. We live in a city and she has run almost right into moving traffic at least twice now and it terrifies me that one day, she will get hit (I am in my 3rd tri now and not so quick to catch her).

Anyway...is this just a threenager thing or is this something to be concerned about? DH and I both realize at this point that we will need to change our discipline tactics soon if this keeps up. She did recently transition from her crib to a toddler bed, but I wouldn't think that would create such all-encompassing behavior changes (and ironically, we actually haven't had issues with sleep, knock on wood). She also switched to preschool from the toddler room back in late July, but this is more recent.

If anyone has gone through anything similar or has tips to share, I'd love to hear it. We are pulling our hair out right now.