No Longer the Always Perfect Little Angel

By Carmen

Up until recently Tyler and I thought we had the perfect child.  We would often hear other parents complain about their toddler’s  almost daily tantrums.  We knew Annley would start having little tantrums but figured they would be few and far between and wouldn’t last long.

Boy were we wrong.  We are to the  Little Miss Bossy and daily tantrum stage now. There are days where she is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.   Those are the days where it takes every ounce of patience in my body to not lose it. Th0se are the days where I know the minute I say the words “no” or “not right now” Annley will start screaming and flailing about for 15-20 mins sometimes even a good 40 mins.

The first time this happened I thought something was horribly wrong with her.  She wanted to be held but she didn’t want to be held.  She wanted to rock and she didn’t want to rock.  Nothing would console her.  It wasn’t until an hour after the outburst I thought back to what triggered it.  She had asked to watch “Little Mermaid” and I said “no”.  When I realized that’s what it had been over I was half mad at myself and thought it was a little funny that it didn’t click in my mind what the problem was.

Now, she goes to time out for some alone time and whenever she decides to calm down I talk to her about her outburst and then we cuddle for a few minutes.

The fact that she talks so well is a blessing because she can tell us what she wants. It’s also annoying because she can tell what she doesn’t want and what she isn’t going to do.