November 16th, 2010 by Busy Mommy
November 14th, 2010 by Busy Mommy
Sure looks innocent doesn’t he?
It looks like overnight the switch to walking has brought about a flood of new emotions and frustrations for our little guy- he must know that walking makes him a toddler on his way to approaching the terrible twos because small but frequent tantrums have started occurring. He grabs a fork and tries to toddle off with it- I take it away so he doesn’t poke his eye out. Waaaaa..haaa…haaaa! (“How dare you take that fork- I was walking with it! You’re so mean!”) If he’s still standing he’ll kind of bounce up and down in time to his incensed protests, or if he’s on the ground he kind of roll around and shake his head. It’s pretty funny actually because it happens instantaneously like hitting a button and it happens everytime I take him from something (the open toilet bowl), or take something from him (mommy’s important bill she has to pay), or set him down (hey he was wriggling to get down wasn’t he?) or pick him up (I wanted to keep playing on the dirty grocery floor!!!!!!!!), these short little 15-20 second tantrums happen. So that’s oh about 30 times a day or thereabouts. I suspect the length of each one will increase. 
I can see that he’s frustrated that he’s not completely in control of his own happiness and desire. He likes the new freedom he’s gaining by being able to walk but that also makes him realize how much more freedom he still doesn’t have that he wants. He loves that Daddy picks him and lets him kind of slide down the pole of the refrigerator over and over and smiles and laughs, but as soon as daddy stops he stamps his little feet and goes wah-wah-wah!!! Daddy picks him up again and lets him slid down the pole a few more times…weee fun! Daddy stops again. Wah wah wah!!!!! (insert low and high pitched angry protests).
I don’t do much about these itty-tantrums besides not give in, unless it’s something that doesn’t matter (like sliding down the fridge pole a few more times). I don’t really scold or spank him about it yet- I know everything is very new for him right now with this walking thing and while I won’t be giving in all the time, I’m happy to hold him and love him while he processes and overcomes his outburst of emotions and deals with this new phase of getting “bigger.” It seems to me that he’s too consumed by his frustrated feelings during these little outbreaks to focus on my doing any punishment/discipline in a way that he would understand considering how quickly they start and end and he’s on to the next thing in 30 seconds all happy again.
We’ll see as time goes on. Because overall, as you can see from these pics, he’s a pretty happy kid. Even though I don’t let him eat rocks in the garden. He manages to get over it pretty quick, even though it was probably really important to him.
Nolan and I went to the park today because I just had so much energy I had to run some of it off. If only! In reality, Nolan has been rather fitful the past few days and watching him reminded me of myself when I used to get “cabin fever” at home as a kid- feeling so bored out of my mind that I felt upset and angry- I wanted to do something different for a change and get out of the house. It seemed to me with Nolan new capabilities he was feeling this way and needed a change of atmosphere. So we headed to the park today to get some fresh air and so he could climb around and explore a new area a bit. He loved it and after 2 hours he was pretty tuckered out. I see a lot more park visits from now on in my days so that this burgeoning ball of energy can use it in a productive happy way.
After our outing he was pre-tty tired….
