Tag Archives: Toddler Tantrums

Newsletter—21 Months

Hiya Peanut,

Sorry—once again—for skipping your newsletter last month. School was really hectic because I tried to go back full-time, but that won’t happen again. It was horrible trying to juggle school, the new house, and of course, you Miss Peanut.

So over the last couple months, a lot of things have happened. We put down Kerrigan. We talked with the vet and decided that it was safer for you if she wasn’t in our house and that she probably wouldn’t get any better in a different house because her aggression was likely caused by a brain abnormality. You didn’t go with us to put her down because it seemed like the best thing. You asked me a few times where she was, but quickly forgot. Once after getting our new puppy, you told me dog is in the backyard (that’s where Kerri spent a lot of her time) and puppy is in the house. It almost made me cry.

As I already mentioned, we got a new puppy. Her name is Curie and you’re in love with her. Seriously, you get upset if we have to leave the house without her—which I will admit doesn’t happen often. She’s become our little friend who we take everywhere with us. You love to play with her, but we’re trying to get you not to play chase with her anymore because her trainer said that’s bad. Makes me sad that we have to make you stop because you get so excited to have Curie chase you around!

You’ve also become super talkative over the last couple of months. You went from one word just to symbolize what you wanted/needed to full-blown talking. You don’t do full sentences, but you’ll say the verb and pronoun of a sentence (Mama owwie!) or even ask me questions (Why baby cry?). You also started just telling me things for the sake of telling me things. Like you’ll tell me that “puppy pee”. You tell me it’s raining. You ask me why the baby in the store is crying. You have so many words—and some of them are so random—now that I’ve lost track of them. It’s seriously amazing. Also, there is 1 of everything and everything is “rerow” (yellow).

You’ve also turned into a monster. I know that I keep saying this, but I’m amazed at the malice you have sometimes. Like the other day when you were trying to feed Curie your bagel. It was really tormenting that little dog because I wasn’t letting her get it, but you kept putting it almost in her reach. I told you to stop, you ignored me. I told you to stop or I’d take it away, you looked right at me while you were doing it. I took it away and you cried a lot. I told you you could have it back if you didn’t give it to the dog, you said “yeah!”. I give it to you, you try to give it to the dog. I throw it away. You have a bigger fit. This happens constantly. Also, if I tell you not to do something and then stop paying attention, you call “Mama!” while you’re doing it because you want me to see you disobeying. Malice!

Christmas is 5 days away. Last year, you were obviously alive and aware, but I don’t think you really understood Christmas. This year, you’ve been helping me change the candy cane in the countdown until Christmas. You made everyone gifts (with a lot of help). You absolutely adore Christmas lights on houses. I did make the mistake of taking you with me to get your Christmas gifts. I think it would have been fine if you hadn’t seen the little shopping cart. You had an absolute fit that you couldn’t have it to play with then and there. I hid it in my trunk and then, of course, you saw it again and had another fit.

And now some pictures!

Puppy was chewing on something, so you decided to chew on something too.

You were very proud of your "traffic jam" you made.

Newsletter—19 Months

Peanut,

You’re such a toddler! It seems like every day you’re making leaping bounds away from baby-hood, which obviously comes with good things and with bad. Let’s start with the good.

First off, you’re talking like crazy! It’s amazing! You’re still pretty shy out in public, but when you’re at home or either of your grandparents’ houses, you’re chattering constantly. We can only make out every few words, but even when it doesn’t make sense to us it’s still pretty obvious that you know what you’re talking about. I’ve been keeping a list of all of the words I can think of that you know and you know a whopping 25 words! I realize this is kind of tedious, but I’m going to tell you all of them just for the record: hi (which you’ll now say to everyone out in public), bye (usually bye-bye repeated a ton of times), Mama, Dada, Yeah!, Uh-oh (when you drop something on accident or on purpose), kitty (often in the combination of Hi kitty!!! while bending down so you’re eye level with the kittens), dog, owwie (which you actually say when you’re hurt. Like when you get a sticker in your foot you just start yelling “Owwie owwie owwie!!” and limping over to me. So cute!), baby (which you think every miniature human is a baby even if they’re bigger than you), up (“up up up!” while bouncing and holding onto someone’s legs so they’ll pick you up), mine (when you want something or if you drop your food and the dog goes for it), please (always while signing please at the same time), I want (when you really want something!), Niki (that’s Mema’s dog. She says you follow the dog around saying “Hi Niki!”), Idella (squeed’s name), Mema (which sounds almost like Mama), Yo (when you want Yo Gabba Gabba), ball, yucky (usually saying it with me when I want you to throw something away), again (when you want to go on the slide again), tomato (Mema says you say that when you want to go pick things in her garden), I love you, banana (more like “ba!”), milk (more like “ma!”).

Wow! So many words! Sorry to the readers that just had to read (or skip) that list. It was mostly a memory thing.

Anywho, you also jump! You’ve been trying to for months and you could always bounce, but your feet actually leave the ground now! Sure, only like a centimeter off the ground, but they leave the ground! Who ever thought that I would be so excited about my child being able to jump?

This next one is kind of a good and bad thing. We adopted two kittens this last month and you love them so much! It’s incredibly cute your adoration for these kittens, but it’s also incredibly stressful at times. They’re only about 10 weeks old now (we’ve had the for a couple weeks) so they’re still really fragile. You, being a 19-month old, don’t really get that. So these kittens are being picked up by their necks and grabbed by their fur. Thrown not-so-gently down when Mama asks you to set them down. We’re trying to monitor your time spent around the kittens and explain to you when you need to be more gentle, but I can tell it’s going to be a long process. At least the kittens don’t seem to mind most of the time and at least we know that these kittens will be very much used to people when they’re older.

The last thing is your tantrums. If anything, and I mean anything doesn’t go your way, you start screaming bloody murder. You’ve always been a very willful child, but wow I wasn’t aware a child could be so easily set off. I can’t watch your show right now? Scream. Can’t get the block into the hole? Scream. Can’t leave the room when it’s bedtime? Scream for 30 minutes straight. Yeah, that last one was a fun night. You wouldn’t let me touch you at all, you didn’t want to read, cuddle, or nurse. I mean really? You didn’t want to nurse? Who’s child is this? It puts Mama at a loss when she doesn’t even have milk to comfort you. I mean seriously, I don’t know what to do when you refuse milk.

So for now we’re just letting you go through your tantrum until you’re finished. I figure it’s healthy to express your anger and I can’t expect a toddler to hold that kind of stuff in. When you’re tantruming for more than a minute, I try to comfort you a bit and tell you it’s alright to get your anger out, but you usually don’t let me. I think when you’re that angry you just don’t want to be touched, which is also alright.

This is a picture of you trying to cuddle with Newton.

This one is you and “Baby” sitting on chairs together.

Love ya Pea-nut!