I think our children, at this stage, more or less are the same.
I read a book likes "teaching easily your child 0-3 years", in Chinese. Inside, it said that every chlid has a period of "objection", around from 2 to 3, lasting for around 1 year.
The book said:
Why they are so trouble? They starts to have "themselves", they wants to understand who they are and wants to try everything themselves. This is very important experience for children. What they do is not trouble or naughty. (Before I think my daughter is trouble and naughty. Guilty!) Therefore, parents should not "stop" their "objection". Otherwise, the children will think themselves naughty and lose the confident to be a good child.
What we can do is, telling our children that they are good boy/girl. And later, day by day, telling them what a good boy/girl should do. Once the children do good thing or cooperate a little bit more, raise them immediately.
Of course, as parents, we can use our "adult power" to force the children to do what we expect, but this will hurt the relationship and not good to our children's development.
Punishing and hiting is negative. Raising is positive.
Try telling your child he/she is a good boy/girl (and what a good boy/girl will do) before he/she does "naughty" thing. It works!