tantrums

Man, oh man are we right in the freaking thick of it. I know what it's like to feel frustrated and want to bang my head against the floor. Thankfully, as an adult I've learned that this isn't the best course of action. Oh, how I wish I could teach the same lesson to my poor toddler.

The massive meltdowns gently referred to as "temper tanrtums" really just started a few weeks ago. Now that I think about it, "tantrum" doesn't really seem to be a strong enough word to describe the phenomenon. I prefer "shrieking hissy fit." Just seems to fit better, conjures up the right kind of imagery.

He'll be playing along just fine, when all of a sudden something doesn't go his way and the world has to know about it. It's hard not to laugh sometimes, especially when the offending action is that he pushes his toy into the wall and instead of backing up and turning around he just sits down and screams at the top of his lungs. Hard not to laugh at the absurdity, and hard not to pull my own hair out at the sound of his shrieking.

Apparently this is a skill they're also working on at daycare, so I'm glad to have an ally. I've also taken to doing what any good mother would do when their toddler is throwing a fit - grabbing the camera.

Here's Baby C in all of his hissy fit glory!





Hmm, I wonder how my co-workers would react if instead of responding to an unreasonable request with restrained irritation I threw myself on the floor and started kicking and screaming? Might have to experiment with that one :)