Bean,  Parenting

Its Gonna Be a Long 18 Years

With Bean on the mend, we are trying to slowly find our way back into a routine.  One that, preferably, doesn’t involve waking up from 3:00 until 4:00 AM.

For the record, Bean is completely against having a routine.  In fact, he is so far on the other side of that issue that he has almost looped back around to being for routines.  And even though we all know that he does better when we are on a relatively steady schedule, we have spent the past few days in tears.  All of us.  While Bean tries to grasp the concept of bedtime and sleeping through the night.

During this little time out from sanity, I have gotten to know a new side of Bean.  A new little trait to his personality that I hadn’t had the privilege of seeing before.

Bean can throw a mean temper tantrum.

I mean, for real. Like, it sounds like we are castrating him instead of suggesting that he take some time to enjoy his warm blanket in his swing.

And its not even the yelling that is so interesting to watch.  Its that he throws himself backwards, mangling himself into these weird contortionist positions.  And he wails.  And heaves.  And huffs.  And screams.

And then as quickly as the hurricane arrived, he is calm again.  Ready for whatever is next.  That is, of course, until the next thing is a nap.  Or bath time.  Or meal time.  Or bed time.  Basically anything other than sitting on the floor chewing on his socks is going to bring on an end of the world melt down.

At first, I was alarmed.  What the crap was wrong with him?  Did I pinch his finger in the high chair tray?  Was he cold?  Was he hot?  Did he have a fever?  Was his diaper dirty?  Was he hungry?  But then I learned.  No.  It was none of those things.  He simply did not want to play with that yellow truck.  He wanted to play with that red ball, DON’T YOU KNOW THAT, MOTHER?!?!?

Occasionally over the past week or so that we’ve been experiencing these little…episodes…I have seen little flashes into the future.  I see Bean at age two, writhing around on the kitchen floor because OH MY GOD, WE’RE HAVING BANANAS WITH OUR CHICKEN!  NOT THE BANANAS!  PLEASE!  NOT THE BANANAS!

Oh, yeah.  This is going to be fun.

15 Comments

  • Amy

    Okay, all kids have tantrums, so you are totally not alone. But I am going to point you in the direction of a video called Love and Logic. You and Chris watch it together, and it will give you some great techniques that will help you thru toddlerdom. Toddlerdom. Is that a word? Whatever. Anyway, be forewarned that in this video, there is such a thing called “The Uh-Oh Song” to be used whenever your kid is starting to show those Spawn of Satan tendencies. I know it sounds like the most cheese-tastic, cornball parenting technique ever, but it really does work if used properly. Good luck!

  • Lisa

    How do you expect any of us to believe that you have a child with hurricane temper tantrums when you post cute little pictures like these? 😉

  • Ella

    Wait till he does them when your out somewhere :). My son is getting better, still has them but i can reason with him a bit now – he is 2 1/2. At one stage he was throwing the biggest tantrums when we were out and i got to the point id only go out if my husband was home to look after him. People would stare! My oldest child, a girl, also had a temper although not to the extent my son does but she pretty much outgrew it at about 3 years old. So in my experience it sort of peaks at about 18 months and gets easier after about 2 1/2. Beanies just getting in early 🙂 Cutes pics!

  • deepa

    Rohan does that too! The back arching, the screaming, the tearless cries. The first time it happened, I stripped him down and did a full inspection – was he bruised? bitten? did my hair (which is falling out – thanks hormones) wrap around an arm or leg? No – he wanted to look at his bookshelf. Gah.

    My mom had a no nonsense look that stopped us from crying (but made other children cry – no joke). I need to work on that look…

    Have you thought about sign language? A lot of my friends did that and they say it really helped with the comminucaiton issue.

  • Whitney

    Levi is discovering this new found freedom in “voicing his opinion” in our home, too! It’s so funny and so sad at the same time. Poor Babies. Sometimes I just wish they could tell us what they want to save themselves (and us) some tears. 🙂

  • Beanie's Nana

    In these pics Beanie looks completely comfortable and happy…but in the background Papa Chris looks worn out and totally over it. Amazing how little ones can turn 360 degrees – but it takes us a little longer to recover. Hang in there, Dad.

  • Christina

    Yes. My two year old did that (a girl) the other day while walking through our church, where my husband works (I was sure he heard her all the way upstairs) and my son goes to school. It was a lot of fun. I was sure that someone was going to call the police she was carrying on so bad, and I couldn’t even shove her in the car and shut the door (which maybe would have looked worse?) because we live four houses from our church, so I had to carry her screaming and kicking in my arms (I am not exaggerating here, either) all the way up the block. Totally. Embarrassing.
    You are not alone.

  • Sara

    Somehow my first baby didn’t really have tantrums except at home or at the babysitter’s house. So we are fully expecting the new baby (same age as Bean) to be full on Satan when he starts his tantrums!

    BTW—love Bean’s jacket! Go Cats!

  • Jordan

    So I was sitting here reading this post, and my husband sits down next to me. I was at the beginning of the post, so only the top part of the fist picture of Bean could be seen, and my husband says “is that Conan O’Brien?” I was like what? where? and I scrolled down to show him that it was just a picture of a baby.

    Thought you would love to know that someone mistook Bean’s hair to be Conan’s 🙂

  • Mrs. Jen B

    My sister once had such a tantrum that she flung herself backwards so hard she actually flipped her walker on its back. THAT got her attention. Those “flinging yourself backwards” once are scary for sure.

    But he IS a cutie pie.

    Hang in there!

  • Meghan

    We thought the terrible two’s would be bad, but three was much worse. We got through the two’s without a lot of tantrums, thought we were in the clear, and then 3 hit and our once normal son was hitting the walls, screaming, and having multiple tantrums a day at the drop of a hat. It lasted for a couple of months and then it seems that one week he just got over it, but now we’re getting into the back talking. Ugh.

  • Mom of 3

    I second the baby signing idea! It won’t end the tantrums but you won’t believe what a 10 month old who knows how to sign can tell you. There are lots of books and videos available at the library to explain it. “More” and “eat” are perfect to start with and so enpowering to a baby. Does your daycare do it at all? He’s the perfect age to start.

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