Mega Meltdown Madness!

Terrible Twos...

Who was the "genius" that coined that phrase?

Because all they did was cause parents to be completely and totally take by surprise when the "terrible two tantrums" started at 16 months.

We are a WAYS away from two.

But yet, here we are.  Right in the middle of a 16-month-old screaming fit.  Screaming because...
~  She wanted to brush her teeth.
~  She wanted ice cream.
~  She couldn't walk UP the slide.
~  She was hungry but didn't want...grapes, blueberries, cookies, crackers, sausage, eggs, cheese, or any other single thing we tried to feed her.
~  She wanted a fork.
~  A "big-person" fork not a "baby" fork.
~  She wanted mommy's big-person fork.
~  She wanted to stay in her chair and play with the tray.
~  She wanted to throw food.
~  She wanted to eat like a dog off of the table.
~  She wanted to STAY in the hot car and play in her car seat.
~  She wanted ice cream.
~  She wanted on the couch.
~  She wanted to sit on the arm of the couch and fall off.
~  She wanted ice cream.
~  She wanted in the bath tub.
~  She wanted to drink the bath water.
~  She wanted out of the bath tub.
~  She wanted ice cream.
~  She wanted in her crib.
~  She wanted out of her crib.
~  She wanted her BLACK puppy, NOT the yellow puppy.
~  She wanted to pick green tomatoes out of the garden.
~  She wanted the iPad.
~  She wanted the remote.
~  She wanted the phone.  NOT her play phone, mommy or daddy's touch-screen phone.
~  She wanted ice cream.

The list could go on...  But our sanity won't.

So I did whatever any good parent of the 21st century does...

I Googled it.

Apparently this is a VERY common thing. There were MANY suggestions out there on how to handle the screaming fits of a child who cannot TELL you what is wrong.

On a good note, I found that we are doing most of them.  Redirection, praise for stopping, love and hugs when she's being good, not giving in to her "wants" when she's acting like that, telling her "no" and walking away from her so she eventually finds something else to do.  On a bad note...we haven't had much success. Again, this seems to be common.  Something that she will "grow out of" and we will have to be patient and firm.

Great...

I will mention that it is not around-the-clock screaming at our house.  She does still have many many moments of sweetness, discovering of new cool tricks, learning to say new words, and cuddles.

And we are VERY fortunate that she hasn't tried the screaming trick in public.  Yet...

So patient and firm we will be.

Wanna Grape?

We have a new game around here.

It's called "Wanna Grape?"

You see... Jackie is at that age where she loves to play with her toys, loves to pull things out of drawers, and loves to read, look at, chew on books.

As long as mommy or daddy is sitting right beside her in the living room.

I am a multitasker.

I have to be.  In order to be a working mom and have some sort of order around the house (however small it may be), I have to multitask.

Jackie doesn't like it when I multitask.

In fact, she will cling to my legs screaming at the top of her lungs if I so much as attempt to wash a dish or cut up a veggie for dinner.

This doesn't work for me.

So, one day, while I was washing and cutting up my recent fruit purchase at the store, Jackie was loudly exclaiming that she wanted my full and undivided attention.  I needed to get this task done so I could move on to fixing dinner (or sweeping, or loading the dishwasher, or folding laundry).  So I very nicely asked her "Wanna grape?"

She did.  She reached up and I picked one off the bundle and handed it to her.  She popped it in her mouth, rolled it around a little bit, and walked off.

It worked!

She played with some noisy toy in the living room for a couple of minutes and then wondered back into the kitchen.

"Wanna grape?"

She signed "please."

Again, popped the grape in her mouth and walked off to find her toy.

This little game was repeated many times until daddy got home from work and dinner was ready.

I had stumbled on to the BEST GAME EVER.

It's a win. Win. WIN. Type of game.

I get to multitask - win

Jackie gets a snack - Win

Jackie gets a healthy snack that I'm OK with if it ruins her dinner - WIN!