The Tantrum

I guess I was a little naive to think that temper tantrums (to the extreme) were only something I would have to deal with when we hit the "terrible twos." Nope, sure enough, just a week shy of hitting the 8 month mark, Jimmy has discovered the tantrum.

Little Jimmy is on a massive crawling spree and loves to trek all over the house. Since we don't have baby gates yet, this means a lot of chasing after him. For some reason, he has fallen in love with the refrigerator and under our coffee table. The kitchen is off limits until we have baby proofed it, so (big) Jimmy put some big toys in the way to block the hallway leading from the living room to the kitchen. It's a little hard to keep Jimmy from hiding under the coffee table, so we allow him to sneak under there and play.

On one adventure to the kitchen to glare up at the large silver refrigerator, Jimmy ran into a road block. He couldn't go around it. He couldn't go through it. So, he threw his very first tantrum.

Already laying on his stomach, all he had to do to complete his task was start furiously kicking his legs and lay his head down on his hands. The crying part was fake, merely a way to get Mommy and Daddy suckered into moving the toy out of the way. Well, it wasn't working. We weren't giving in and he had to learn the hard way. We laughed quietly to ourselves at this display of pure frustration taking place in the living room and when we glanced over he peeked up at us to see if we were paying attention. Seeing that he did indeed have our attention then prompted big tears to flood his eyes and roll down his cheeks. We still didn't budge. Our living room is HUGE and there are so many places for him to wander. A plethora of toys! His favorite blanket! But of course, the grass was greener on the other side of the exersaucer.

In a final attempt to get us to move the toy, Jimmy looked up at me and wailed, "Momma-momma-momma-momma!" As much as I adore his newfound love for saying my name, I still couldn't let it get the best of me. We let him wail on for a few more seconds and then I scooped him up in my arms and explained - yes, explained - to him about why we had the toy there. He may be small, but he isn't stupid. Baby talk isn't heard much in this house and Jimmy is so much smarter because of it. His comprehension skills, in this Mommy's opinion, are off the chart. So, because he is a human with learning capabilities, I showed him the toy and explained that we put it there to protect him, not to be mean. I hugged him and kissed him and then put him back on his big blanket, where was surrounded by toys. We played on the floor with him to distract him from the possible endeavor of trying again, and it seemed to work - for a few minutes. :)