Terrible twos have started

Well, two weeks ago I had a sweet, loving, fun, easy-to-laugh child. Now, I have a sweet, loving, fun, easy-to-laugh and easy-to-scream monster. Seriously, what happened to my sweet little boy? This transformation started at almost exactly 4 months after Joe turned 2. He actually told me (out of the blue, with no provocation) "no water, only juice" while we were walking through a parking lot with no water or juice in sight. He will scream "not mommy!" or "not daddy!" or "not eating time!" or "not here" or "not insert-seemingly-innocent-item-here" with no warning or reason. He takes two hours to fall asleep, and then only does after much headbutting, hitting, kicking, and screaming. He falls apart if you try to help him do anything.

It seems the only advice that other mother's have for me is "two is nothing, wait till he is three, three is much worse." What kind of advice is that?!? Argh. Well, for now we just get through it as best we can. I have taken to driving him around to put him to sleep at naptime again, like I did when he was a baby. I am thinking about putting a gate up at his bedroom door so when he starts hitting, etc at night I can just get up and leave. As for the inevitable screaming fits? I ignore, I bribe, I cajole, I leave. I pray.