Tantrums, Tantrums, All Day Long

For some reason I've never yet seen an Anne Heche movie, but we caught her last night on David Letterman and I have to say, the woman can definitely act. She did the rendition of a two year old's temper tantrum that was our little toddler right down to the ground. I was very impressed.

I had to pick her up in the middle of a tantrum last night during dinner, and she let loose with this ear-splitting shriek that still has my left ear ringing. I didn't know a human being could reach that pitch!

About a year ago I was reading some article about toddlers and temper tantrums. It said that you could gauge how many tantrums your baby would throw during the terrible twos by looking at how many tantrums she was throwing in the year before. My daughter pegged at the highest end of the scale, and you know what? They were right.

We get a tantrum about once an hour, maybe once every couple of hours if we're lucky. Today, for instance, she woke up in a happy mood, which lasted about 20 minutes. As soon as Daddy got up, however, she started a tantrum. We never did figure out why. It only stopped when we were able to distract her by turning on Caillou.

I've learned that distraction seems to be the key to turning off the tantrums. Offering to read her a book, let her watch a video, play outside, get her some milk or a piece of fruit - all very good distractions. I try to keep the distractions healthy things, but of course I worry that I'm ruining her life by handling this wrong.

Not that I run to stop a tantrum. Please don't think that! I watch her, keep her safe, and otherwise ignore her, in order to keep from reinforcing the behavior. But then there are those days that it's been nothing but tantrums and I need a break before I go crazy. That's when Cinderella comes out!