Tantrums

One of the things they don't tell you about being a parent, is that your cute little squirmy baby is going to turn into an irascible toddler. Well they do tell you that they will have 'tantrums' but the word hardly covers it.

Imagine a screeching monkey, whimpering puppy, and an asthmatic runner all rolled into the body of the critter whose facial expressions evolution has uniquely attuned you to. And they never seem to end. People always say, "oh I know honey, they seem like they go on forever but it's really only about 10 minutes." Yeah, horse doo doo. I clocked the one tonight at 38 minutes-ish. Eventually it ended when he temporarily nodded off mid scream. The longest one we've seen so far clocked in around 45 minutes. Truly my son has inherited a mean stubborn streak from one of us.

What really get's me about the tantrums is what causes them. It's inscrutable. Definitely it seems exacerbated by tiredness but past that. . . *shrug* Reasons my toddler have tantrumed include:

• I wouldn't let him stick his finger in the power outlet
• I put away the toy he finished playing with an hour ago
• We eat dinner on the table, not the couch
• There are no pages to turn to before the first page
• The cat ate his cheerio
• A different cat jumped on the coffee table
• The door won't open. *he was standing in the way*
• And my favorite - He took off his shoes

Babies need warning labels. "Caution: mood subject to broad shifts - always wear your hard hat and carry a shield"