Toddler Tempers

Last night, I attempted to make dinner using two pans. For those of you who know me well, you know that I'm a terrible cook. Truly. I can bake poppy seed bread using my mom's "Kate-proof" recipe, but that's it ("Kate-proof" is my mom's phrase, not mine). I burn things. I have no judgment about when something is done. I even screw up macaroni and cheese from a box...I always put in too much milk making it soupy. Last night, I attempted to fry Trader Joe's fries in the fry pan while heating up Trader Joe's chicken and portabello alfredo on the skillet. The chicken actually made me nervous b/c I didn't want to undercook it for obvious reasons.

Henry was in a mood while I was trying to cook. I rushed out to the living room to give him the telephone to talk with Grammy b/c he'd been begging to talk with her. He threw a fit when I told him he had to hang up the telephone. I ended up taking the battery out of the telephone and giving it to him. He came into the kitchen with it and threw it. Not a bad throw.

Jeff's best friend Tony called. I talked with him for awhile. Henry decided to yell and grab onto the cabinet handles and rock himself back and forth. I've actually never seen him have such an extended temper tantrum. He wanted a bath but I told him that he needed to eat dinner first. Tony was very nice about the interruptions. He has four children and has probably seen it all.

I salvaged some of the fries. They didn't taste that bad. And the noodles turned out OK. Edible, but they didn't resemble alfredo from a restaurant. Henry and Miss R pretty much used the noodles to put in their hair and give to Roger. Miss R was better about eating than Henry by far.

The kids had fun taking a bubble bath. Miss R loves bubbles. I hadn't quizzed Henry about various elected and appointed officials in awhile. While asking him who was the Secretary of State, he started splashing Miss R and put bubbles in her hair. He didn't touch her hard but she didn't want his splashes. Here a clip...



Miss R has the ability to wail like nothing else. Complete with huge tears. But she can turn them off as quickly as she turns them on. Incidentally, she recovered from Henry touching her hair and enjoyed the video, which made her laugh.

Henry wants to hold Miss R's hand a lot. Over the last couple weeks, he has gone from mainly being interested in parallel play to wanting to interact with Miss R. Developmentally, Miss R is 3.5 months younger than Henry. She's still in parallel play mode and doesn't really want Henry or Karina to touch her. I suspect that things will be different in a couple months. In the meantime, I've been directing Henry to give her some space. She does interact with him on occasion, such as singing "Ah Wah Wah" in the back of the car and exchanging food during meal time. The other day, Miss R swapped Henry her crackers for his juicy fruit toddler treats. And she sometimes like to roll on top of him on the couch when they are laughing together about something. But we haven't hit the cooperative play phase yet.

Miss R fell asleep on the couch last night. It was easy transitioning her to the bed. Henry stayed up until 10:30PM. Then he was ready for bed. I concur with anyone who says that 10:30PM is kind of late for a 2 year old. As near as we can tell, Henry only wants about 8-9 hours of sleep at night...using more like 8 hours. Going to bed early simply means getting up really early. I prefer him not getting up before 6:30AM. That's better for me anyway.

This morning, Henry was in his high chair. He was "done" eating. So he wanted to "Hold You!" followed by "Hold Mommy!" The one and only good thing about Jeff being away is getting Henry's attention and the extended snuggle time.

I talked with Jeff this morning. Things ended up going OK at his work. He leaves Philly sometime after 5PM. He'll be back in Tucson by 10PM. We are happy that he is coming home!

Jeff ordered beds for the kids last week. When they arrive, we'll get fun bed spreads and sheets. Then, we'll work on transitioning the kids from our bed to their own. My big boy is growing up! I honestly think that the transition won't be too hard for Miss R. She seems to be OK at night as long as she has a blanket and doll or bear. She did wake up once last night and want me to put my hand on her head for comfort.

Tomorrow, we have Miss R's CFT (child family team meeting). We also plan to take a look at one of the daycares.