Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Toddler Tantrums

Well, the day has come. I officially feel like a terrible parent. I have family members who swear their children never went through the terrible two stages. "It's all about how you, the parent, respond to them", they'd say. So while my child is laying on the floor screaming and carrying on, exactly what am I suppose to do? Ignore that? Walk away? Act like I can't hear the ear piercing screams from my 'sweet little baby'? Seriously! That makes them stop? Prove it!

I have always been the one to hear babies crying, kids pitching fits, or just making noise in general. After you have kids, that's suppose to change, right? It all just blends in with the background noise? Right! I still can't tune out my own kid, much less any other child carrying on. Is there a secret to this 'tuning out' that someone would like to share with me :).  Maybe that would help the both of us.

For the most part, Simon is just finding his place in our family. We don't feed him a lot of sweets or junk food, but I've made the mistake of giving him animal crackers after dinner. He also has a bedtime snack...what? he has always eaten a lot! That boy came out looking for a hamburger! The dilemma now is he eats anything they feed him at school, but he has stopped eating what I put in front of him. Grrrr, dumb animal crackers. We have a hutch in our kitchen where I store his baby snacks, and he knows that's where they are. If he doesn't want what I put down on his tray to eat, he immediately looks at the hutch and starts carrying on about he would rather have some puffs, or a cereal bar, or baby Cheetos (yes, they make those), or animal crackers. By carrying on I don't mean actually talking, its more like he's speaking a foreign language, but I know what he means. Tonight I gave him unbreaded chicken tenders that had mushroom gravy on them (no mushrooms). The chicken was tender, and usually he loves chicken. I also gave him some baked apples and a cheese stick. He took one bite of the chicken, one bite of the apples, then took the cheese stick and threw it in the floor. Don't worry, we have a dog who loves cheese. Then, the fussing began. I had already decided I was going to ignore him tonight to see if he would eventually eat what I'd given him. His fussing turned into a full fledged tantrum. At this point I was pretty sure outside was calling me. This kid may be more stubborn than his mother....he did eventually eat the apples (or either the dog did) but he didn't touch the chicken. Note to self: Si does NOT like mushroom and gravy on chicken. He was all worked up so we snuggled in the rocker for a bit then it was bath time. His little belly was growling the whole time. After bath, he ran into the kitchen pointing at the hutch.

A lot of mommies talk about 'choosing their battles' between their spouses and children. How is it that my 16 month old slaughters me in battle?

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