Monday, 14 September 2015

Tantrums

These tantrums all happened in the last seven days.
I took R out of his pyjamas with the fluorescent yellow monster on the front and tried to dress him for daycare. He pulled off his t-shirt and ran around the house in his singlet, flapping his arms, while holding his pyjama top and screaming "Monster! Monster!".

He was still very upset when I was re-dressing him. J helpfully handed him his shoes. R threw them at his head. One of the few times there were legitimate tears in the week.

Later that morning, we arrived at daycare. Like every morning, I took their empty sippy cups from them. J screamed. This is an instance where to understand the baby you must think like a baby. I find this much easier than my wife - probably because I lack emotional maturity and act irrationally all the time. In this instance I quickly realised it was my fault. I handed the cup over, then asked him to give it to me, and received it back with no dramas.


That night, J starting sobbing uncontrollably because I stopped him from jumping off the coffee table.

At least twice in the last week, R became hysterical because it was time for a bath. The other times he started undressing before the bath was filled, excitedly yelling "Bath time! Bath time!"

Both kids will get very upset if dad rather than mum dries and dresses them after their bath, or if dad rather than mum tries to tuck them into bed.

At meal times:
  • Having the wrong colour and/or shape spoon.
  • Having the wrong colour plate or bowl
  • Having the wrong colour bib.
R will now also scream unless placed in the identical high chair that is closest to the wall.

R and J were playing with Mr. Potato Head. Ryan had attached the arm - in the ear hole, but not a bad effort. He now wanted to put on Mrs. Potato Head's handbag. The problem was only some of the arms are shaped the right way for this to work. This was not one of those arms. He started screaming "Wrong way! Wrong way!". When I tried to help by attaching the correct arm for the bag he screamed louder because I had "broken it".

One of the most common things J says is "R bite". This is because R often bites him. J normally starts it by whacking him in the head or pulling his hair. If I ask either to say sorry they say, "no sorry Dada!".

We went to the beach and R got scared of the waves. He spent the entire time clinging to one of us, refusing to let his feet touch the sand, while repeating "no beach!", "inside!" and "R scare". 

To distract them at the supermarket, we let them hold the toothbrushes we'd just bought for them. They then got to the place them on the conveyor belt at the register, which was a big winner. Until seconds later, when J is screaming "Clean teeth! Clean teeth!" while pointing at the register.

I feel bad about this one. R had a tantrum because the TV went off at dinner time. I then didn't realise he had stopped screaming about the TV and started screaming "help Dada!" because he wanted me to help him buckle in the straps on his high chair.

The most common tantrum is wanting a dummy, or more dummies, or in J's case "nummies". J cried because he dropped two nummies. He was still holding seven, plus the one in his mouth.

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