Terrible Twos and Temper Tantrums~priddymomma

Hey guys!  Did ya miss me?  I posted on my "Bits of Everything" blog about where I was last week

Sock Drawer Surprise

On top of that awesome fun, I was also sick.  Still am, actually.  The thrills!

20 minutes later and someone will be crying  *sigh*

 Anywho, enough of my lame excuses!  We're here to talk terrible twos and temper tantrums!  I feel like just referring you all to Tori's post from Tuesday.  She and I have kids around the same ages.


The first thing you need to keep in mind is that "terrible twos" is just a title given to a stage that starts right around 18 months and ends somewhere around 18 years.  Parenting has a lot of limit-setting.  Your kids are going to surprise you with random awful things they have never done before, and it will probably be while you have company.  Princess Cheerio just hit 18 months five days ago, and it was like some switch just flipped somewhere in that little brain of hers.  That switch must be labeled "destruction", because if you could see my living room right now...actually, I'll take a picture just so I can post it.

Yeah.  That's not a reenactment, folks.  And that was all her.  AND it has been partially cleaned by my son!

Princess Cheerio has made it her new mission in life to throw all papers and scatter all books within her reach.  And if she can't reach it, she gets mad and FINDS A WAY!  Enter chair scooting, block stacking, and my favorite, bookshelf climbing.  Just today she tore my living room a new one, scattered the papers off my desk (which really annoys me, btw), pulled an exercise DVD down that I just received in the mail and proceeded to chew on and then throw it, lost my place in a book I was reading (grr...), tried to destroy the Wii and DVD player at the same time, attempted to climb the baby gate because big brother was in the kitchen with mom and dang it I am hungry NOW!, ran from me when it was finally time to eat, dumped her cereal bowl on her head (twice), had a meltdown because she couldn't have the Halloween decor I was hanging on the ceiling, threw her bed lovies and blanket on the floor instead of sleeping, and took off her pants the moment I wasn't looking just because she could.  I probably missed something.  And before she was so sweet all the time.

Part of that is indeed because she is developing a greater emotional range.  We have been encouraging her to use her words.  Today, that resulted in daddy trying to wrestle her into a diaper while she screamed, "I'm MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD MAD!"  In that case, I don't think words worked out too well.  I would have liked a better explanation, for one thing.  Second, that much was kind of obvious by the screaming, red face, and flailing.  Just saying...

During that event, it would have been more useful to have her practice taking deep breaths.  I highly recommend the deep breathing technique for your toddler or for yourself when you toddler touches that forbidden object JUST ONE MORE TIME!  

The number one thing I can tell you is something you are probably already doing:  love your child.  Sometimes the tantrums and the mischief are just attention-seeking behaviors.  When they are at their rottenest and least loveable, that is when they need the most loving and understanding from you.

Catch ya next week, folks!  See ya!