Temper Tantrum

Terrible twos here we come!!!!

I have seen little bits and pieces of the terrible twos temper tantrums over the past couple of months. However, I had seen nothing like I had seen the other night. I think each time you experience it, you learn better and better how to handle it. The first true temper tantrum Joshua had that I can recall was about 6 weeks ago in Target. (We do think it was attributed to the fact that he was tired and hungry, but a temper tantrum is a temper tantrum, right? How did Keith and I react to said temper tantrum in Target? We looked at Josh and laughed. Yes, you read correctly, we laughed.) Anyway, back to the other night's winner.

Joshua was playing with our grill brush. (The grill brush is the long brush that you keep by the grill to brush on barbeque sauce.) I am not sure why Joshua was playing with it in his high chair, but he had liked playing with it before and Keith and Grandpop had given it to him. I took it away so that we could eat dinner knowing that he would eventually forget about it, and we could continue with our night. Wrong.

As we were finishing dinner, Grandpop gave Joshua back the brush. "Noooo" I thought. I tried to take the brush away as we were cleaning up after dinner, but Joshua wouldn't let go of the brush. I tried to pry it out of his hands, but he wouldn't let it go without a big fight. So, I brought the brush up with us to the bathroom. He held onto it as he went on the potty, and he held onto it as I took off his clothes and prepared the bath. Each time I tried to take it away, he put up a fight. Joshua, then used the hook on the brush and put the brush on the door handle. I thought we would be ok then. I put Joshua in the bath, and all of a sudden, he got hysterical for the brush. We are talking bright red face and tons of tears. It made it virtually impossible to give him a bath. So, I pulled him out of the bath, grabbed the brush, and put him back in the bath with the brush. (I was starting to get a little afraid that he was going to sleep with this brush. I also had another thought come across me that I was "giving in". Now, if I start to give in, Joshua will think that all he has to do to get his way is have a temper tantrum. Fun fun fun. There was no winning with this one.)

Joshua had fun getting dressed with the brush, and he had fun reading a bedtime story with the brush. Finally, I pryed the brush out of Josh's hand, told him that the brush was going "night night" outside his room. Joshua put up a small fight, but it worked and he didn't sleep with the brush.

I know this was the first of many "real" temper tantrums. I know I am not supposed to give in to the tantrums. I don't plan on really giving in to the tantrums in the future. Please just let this one slide, OK? I have my reasons, and I am still new at this toddler thing.