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Thursday, March 29, 2007

Set to Broil

We had a complete meltdown today! Yikes! I'm a little concerned that it's starting so early. I'm beginning to see that we're raising a strong-willed child. He's not always like this, but he does have tenancies towards it. Today when I was tutoring he was not cooperating. Usually he'll sit in his stroller for a while, eat a snack, and then get down to play or walk around. He didn't sit very long, and he was wanting down. I put him down, and he wanted to eat. I tried giving him his snacks again. Nope! No deal! I tried his water cup. Nope! I distracted him for a little while with some toys. Then he came back to me, signing that he wanted more to eat. I tried some crackers that I had in my purse. He ate about 3/4 of one, then wanted nothing more to do with those. He still wanted something to eat. I had nothing else with me! Ahh. SO, he went into a fit right there in front of all the kids. Boy was I glad that there were other adults in the room, at least I didn't have to deal with all the kids too. I just told the girl I was working with that I would be back. I escorted Zachariah out of the room and tried to calm him down. Didn't work. The only thing I could think that would stop it was something he would like to eat. I finally found some leftover crumbs of cereal that we had in the kitchen for the kids' snacks. He seemed to think that was acceptable to eat. Finally! So, I set him back in his stroller to eat this snack. Matt came within about 15 minutes to get him. Luckily the cereal lasted that long.

I still don't know for sure what caused this meltdown. A few days this week I had a granola bar in his bag, and I think maybe that's what he wanted. I didn't have one, so it made him mad. Oops, I didn't realized that I had started something. Or maybe it was just one of those moods. This is the worst he's ever been. And of course it had to happen away from home...and somewhere I couldn't let him scream it out. I hope this isn't going to be an ongoing problem, or we'll have to come up with another solution. That was no fun. And we still have a LONG way until the Terrible Twos.

2 comments:

Kelsey said...

Harper went through a stage that I worried was also early terrible twos. It lasted about three months for us. Then she became fairly pleasant and predictable again until the real twos hit. I think this happens for a lot of kids. Hang in there! If he is going through something, you'll probably get a break before the real twos kick in!

Sarah said...

True, and also, let's face it: What kid isn't strong willed some of the time? I literally have yet to meet a child who isn't strong willed. Some just choose to break it out the stubborn less often than others, but pretty much all of us can be a brat when we want to be!