I'm glad I'm not a Toddler

Poor little C. Lately he's been getting really frustrated. His vocabulary is expanding greatly and he uses his words, but his temper is uncontrollable. Tonight at day care he had a melt down (tuned into a puddle of mush). 

Typically this does not happen until we get home. He was upset because I picked up some free used books and had them in his diaper bag. I insisted on zipping the bag up and he went into melt-down mode. He started sobbing uncontrollably, and thrust himself onto the floor. Then he proceeded to try and rip his jacket off. He screamed and cried, and screamed and cried until his pale complexion was bright pink. 

The day care ladies didn't know whether to laugh or cry with him. I see this occurrence about three times/week at home. They claim he does not do this at school. His daycare lady was obviously very concerned and tried to console him (after I had a couple of times). Generally he gets himself so worked up that there's not much you can do other than try and talk him out of it. Most often he does this when we get home from daycare because he doesn't want to come in from the outside.

Tonight I took him out of the room screaming with his "rigor mortis" body. We stopped at the book shelf on the way out and I asked him if he wanted to pick out a book. He sobbed, "Yeeeeesh." I put him on the ground and without stopping his sobbing, nor missing a beat he ran back to the toddler room - where we just left. He pressed his face against the door window and continued to sob until Kelly the daycare administrator knelt down and met him face to face. His poor little whimper was so pathetic, it almost brought a tear to my eye.

He gets so upset when he can't have his way. And he isn't throwing a tantrum to be naughty - he's genuinely that upset about whatever the stimulus is. I feel horrible, but I'm not going to give in to his over-reactions, I think it will only encourage his temper. His lady Gretchen came out and asked him if she could carry him outside and he agreed. He softened his body and allowed her to carry him out, with me, to the car.

Once in the car it nearly started again until she gave him a little box of yogurt-covered raisies (raisins). We made it all the way home without another outburst. Well, other than to yell, "HeeeYouGooo, HeeeYouGoooo" when he wanted me to take the empty box.

Then the craziest thing happened. Once we got home he was awesome! From eating dinner, to reading a book, to Skyping with gramma and grandpa Jurek and even telling me he had to go poo poo (I missed the opp though). Then he said he was tired and went to bed with a "SeeeU a mo mo" (See you in the morning). 

Maybe meltdowns in daycare aren't so bad after all. Good night everyone.