Friday, February 27, 2009

The Day She Ate Cake...

...for breakfast. Well it was Valentine's Day weekend, I purchased these lovely heart shaped cakes to celebrate. One would have fed at least 3 people, 2 chocolate, 2 vanilla, moist single-layer, covered with an fondant-like icing...so I bought 4. We love our sweets in this house, Gary and I both awoke with sugar hangovers the following morning. Of course though there was cake left over for breakfast, what better way to start the day than with cake and coffee? None, I say! Little Girl proceeded to tear her way through about 1/4 cake, "Be Mine" smeared on her face.

Then we decided a visit to the Nature & Science Museum would be fun. Delusions abound with any kind of hangover. Under-slept Toddleator + cake breakfast + public arena + random small children = disaster. How appropriate that we visited the "Nature Unleashed" exhibit. Technically the adventure started in the Gem & Minerals when I witnessed the child acting rather territorial around another toddler, we evacuated the area and moved on. Now it's fair to note that we didn't take the normal course of action, explaining the where, the how, what's expected of Fiona before we venture anywhere. This mistake just set up the rest of the morning. While spiriting through Earthquakes Fiona is unruly, upon reaching Tsunamis she's pushing the limits, when we hit the Hurricanes she's entirely outta control. This culminated in shoving another little girl into a structure. I didn't actually see what happened. I turned in time to see the smaller girl bump/bounce off the exhibit post and fall. I don't think she was hurt, as she didn't cry, I'm apologetic to the mother. Fiona stood tall, I knelt and asked Fiona if she had indeed pushed the other little person, "Yesss" was the reply. Immediately, calmly, I said, "We're leaving," picked up my offspring and with Gary trailing slightly behind, we walked swiftly from the area. Once, at The Man's askance we tried to stop and get some snack into her, but there was no going back. The flailing had begun, the "NOoooo, I dooon't waaant (you-name-it)", hitting at what Gary offered, yelling at top of lungs....and we're done. She fought the car-seat, hollered all the way back to the house, eventually in her bed she slept, and post-nap it was as if nothing happened. Talk about natural disaster!

Funny thing the weekend prior we had a nice time at the museum, and when we were waiting for Little Girl to say bye-bye to the bronze wolves out front, we witnessed a tantruming toddler tossed over the shoulder of an exasperated---yet smiling---father. We return smiles with empathy and acknowledgment, you are not alone.
She had been pretty cranky in the last few weeks, waking at weird hours, just generally on edge. I noticed some new molars while brushing teeth the other night---teething! Which makes total sense, now that I think about it. Her behavior is right in line with how she 'handled' teething as an infant---except she's bigger, stronger, talks, and is much more expressive.

I'm still triathlon training, getting the volumes up proper before starting the Half Iron Man plan in March. My races are June, July, & August. I'm excited already!

So Sad! :(

Friday, February 6, 2009

this is the inferno...

Welcome to Planet Tantrum. Please refrain from speaking to the Toddleator under ANY circumstances, other than to say "I love you, so sad you're having a tough time." Any other interaction is ill advised as it could result in a random foot/arm/hand/leg-to-face contact. Be aware, also, that screaming is perfectly normal---in fact, expected---at this stage of meltdown. It will sound as if someone is injuring the toddler, it will sound as if she hates you and everything you've ever said, done, implied, attempted, cared for, wanted, loved, or eaten. If the phrenetic line of thought seems psycotic, that's because it IS. Items, situations, food, that are loooong past in the toddler timeline will be resurrected in order to continue the hellacious harangue. Remember too, that not everyone surrounding the scene has children, not everyone will understand that it is in fact a normal growing pain for small children. People with children will offer sympathetic smiles, people without children will move away in horror. This is not personal, it is simply that childless persons generally don't carry that innate parental compassion.

There will come a time on Planet Tantrum where you will see 2 choices, as I have:
1) allow frustration to overwhelm the normally tolerant parental instinct, in which the only road leads to violence in some form or other
OR
2) LAUGH, chuckle, flex the jaw, breathe very deeply, and repeat " 'This too shall pass'...please, god-the-universe, Oh, please-please-please...'This too shall pass.' "
I think it's kind of silly to become SO frustrated, she is so small, everything is SO new, the emotions are SO intense....what would happen if someone treated me badly just because I happen to have a bad day?
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