This is what happens about once a week when Owen gets up from his nap and misses Tom. Usually he just says he’s not happy, but sometimes it’s a full-fledged breakdown. Poor kid.
Category Archives: Tantrums / Whining / Pouting
Almost every day, folks.
He doesn’t know what he wants, he just knows its not anything I’m suggesting.
Oh, the whining.
This is what we get ALL. DAY. LONG. Whenever we ask him (or tell him) to do pretty much ANYTHING.
This morning it was me telling him we had to go downstairs, but he could still watch TV.
😐
From angel to demon in seconds.
Holy crap. We definitely have a threenager. Owen was with Tom this morning getting a haircut and wasting time until Best Buy opened. He. Was. Awesome. The whole time. He even earned a treat at Big Lots. He was the picture perfect child.
Until.
They pulled in the driveway and got out of the car. Instant tantrum.
Seriously?
Nothing had happened.
He didn’t want to take his jacket off. He didn’t want to take his shoes off. He didn’t want to show me his new gun. He didn’t want to play his game (which he had banked a lot of time on for being so good). And on and on.
We were pretty sure he was just hungry so wanted him to eat breakfast.
NOOOOOOO!!!
Okay, a snack, then?
NOOOOOOO!!!
Crackers? Your favorite?
NOOOOOOO!!!
Okay, then you at least have to go sit at the table. (Which usually is a good way to kind of trick him into wanting to eat.)
NOOOOOOO!!!
I started my count: 1…2…3. Wow, I got to three. I rarely get to three. Which means I had to manhandle him to the table. Thankfully Tom was right there so he did it.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my gawd. The tears and whining and drooling and non-stop screeching.
Owen, eat your breakfast.
NOOOOOOO!!!
Owen, please drink your milk or eat some yogurt.
NOOOOOOO!!!
Owen, what do you want to eat?
/unintelligible whining/
Owen, what do you want to do?
I’M NOT HAPPY!!!!!
/Cutting out about 10 full minutes of back and forth and lots of tantrum-y goodness./
Owen, if you don’t calm down, you’re going to your room.
At which point…he ended up in his room.
Long story short (yes, this is the short version)…about five minutes later we checked on him and he was calmed down enough to leave his room…and then he was happy as a clam and you’d never know he had even been whining.
SERIOUSLY?!
Bath Switcheroo
So it was Owen’s bath time and he was being his stubborn self whining about everything—whining to come upstairs, whining to get his shirt off, whining to take his underwear off, whining to get in the tub, whining to let me wash his hair—though of course he couldn’t tell me why he was whining other than “Because I’m not happy.” So I matter-of-factly told him I was going to give him his bath whether he was whining or not or whether he was happy or not.
After washing his hair I was just tired of it so asked if he wanted daddy instead…and he said yes. So we switched (he had Katie) and I heard some lightsaber sounds in there and it seemed like things were going better…when Tom came out to tell me what Owen had just said.
Tom: What’s going on in here?
Owen: Mama is very very upset with me and I don’t know why.
Kids.
The whining is endless.
Owen has turned into Mr. Whine About Anything and Everything All the Freaking Time.
Just today:
Waking up from a nap? Whine.
Me singing to Katie? Whine.
Asking if he has to pee? Whine.
Asking if he wants a snack? Whine.
Tom walking down the stairs? Whine.
The cat walking by him? Whine.
The sun isn’t out? Whine.
Putting a pillow next to him? Whine.
Telling him its time for dinner? Whine.
Telling him we have to go downstairs? Whine.
Turning off the TV? Whine.
Asking if he wants to go outside? Whine.
Asking if he wants a juice box? Whine.
Katie cries? Whine.
I turn on the wrong Backyardigans? Whine.
The Backyardigans story doesn’t start fast enough? Whine.
I turn off the living room light? Whine.
Katie reaches for the wipes? Whine.
And once he starts whining, any action or talking will cause him to start again.
It’s tiring.
No, he’s not tired.
After a 20-minute tantrum about how he’s NOT TIRED and DOES NOT WANT TO TAKE A QUICK NAP…
The sick whining.
He woke up from his nap crying and by the time I got downstairs to him, he just couldn’t seem to stop. Everything I asked him just seemed to make it worse. 🙁
He obviously doesn’t feel well but doesn’t know how to express it—and isn’t used to it since he’s never been sick like this before.
It just breaks your heart. Grandparents, you might not want to watch. 🙁
Sick kids are no fun.
Owen has been sick for the past few days…basically just running a fever and being cranky.
And on the topic of running a fever, how annoying is it that I can’t get a good reading? I have taken Owen’s temp three different times/places (with the doctor-recommended temporal artery thermometer) and it varied from 101 to 103.5. Seriously? I even tried one with a normal digital thermometer and that didn’t help much, either.
- First temporal artery (forehead) was 103.5.
- Second forehead was 101.5.
- Behind the ear was 101.
- Armpit was 103.5.
- Under the tongue is nearly impossible so I didn’t even try.
WTF?! I guess I could break out the rectal if I was super worried.
So anyway…he wasn’t acting like he had a 103 temp which was the only reason I didn’t really freak out (and my mom friends told me that apparently 104+ is the new temp to worry about with kids these days as long as they’re acting okay and drinking okay—which he was). You’d think that with an almost 4-year-old I’d be well-versed in how to deal with a sick kid…but he’s only been sick like once before!!
The worst thing, I think, is that he HATES to take medicine in ANY form. He starts freaking out and crying at the mere mention of needing to take medicine. And even if you give him the choice of how he wants to take it (meltaway tabs, liquid from a cup, liquid from a syringe), he will still vomit it up every time. Well, most every time, but close enough to every time to say every time. 😐
When we were at UNC we had him try and take a melting tablet (seriously, it’s like a Sweet Tart—super yummy and sweet—that melts in your mouth in about 10 seconds) and he freaked out. Flat refuses to swallow. This time, he held it for like 5 minutes at which point he spit most of it out. Then he continued refusing to swallow until he had to say something. So all he got was about 1/4 of one pill, so 1/16 of the recommended dose. And of course he’s a whining snotty mess the whole time, like we’re sticking him with a hot poker. We did get lots of empathetic glances, though (we were in the children’s wing of UNC).
When we got home I thought I’d be sneaky and crush up a tablet into his yogurt. Ha. That was a laugh. After one bite I had grape juice vomit halfway across my living room. I think he’s just so aware of textures and changes to his regular foods that he just KNOWS.
It’s just SOOOOO frustrating.
Typical Threenager Tantrum
All I wanted to do was to get him dressed to go shopping.
This is typically what we get during an Owen tantrum—and I guess it’s not so much a tantrum as a power struggle. I did wait a bit longer than I normally would because I was recording it…but this is the gist of what happens—complete with eye-crossing. Of course, as soon as I stopped recording and he was dressed, he was all happy like nothing happened.
Second day of potty training.
Well, there were ups and downs today…as expected, I guess. 😐
I went to town and bought 15 pair of (size 6!) underwear, so we’re fully stocked. I also bought a bunch of toys for the Pee and Poop Reward Jars. Of course, when Owen saw me with the new toys that he couldn’t play with, he had a mini meltdown…complete with his growling “Not gonna pee in potty anymore! Don’t want toys anymore!”
But overall he did pretty well peeing in the potty. There were a few instances of not quite making it in time—he gets to the bathroom but either pees on the way there or doesn’t get his undies down in time. And the times he does get in there, his aim is awful (even with Cheerios as targets)…so needless to say the Clorox wipes and baby wipes are kept close at hand (one to clean the floor/wall/toilet and one to clean him).
I think his biggest problem is not wanting to stop what he’s doing to go potty, hence the waiting until the last minute. If you ask him if he has to go, he usually says no. So you have to watch him like a hawk and notice him holding himself or crossing his legs or prancing around. But other times he’ll just go in the bathroom on his own… so it’s a total crapshoot. He did earn quite a few toys so he was happy.
The best part of the day, however, was when he was handed a chocolate coin for his potty training reward, and said: “A chocolate coin! WOOHOO!” Yes, he literally said WOOHOO! 😀
Tomorrow is poop day. It’s been two days with only rabbit turds… Lord help us.
NO KISSES!
He definitely didn’t want kisses and was letting us know…but he was also half laughing. That growl you hear in his voice? That’s what his “tantrums” are like (I know, not bad—I’m not complaining).
Noooo, fake crying, and bath request
Here’s a sample of Owen having a fake tantrum. He honestly didn’t want the camera out, but once he saw it, then the dramatics started… I love it.
Introducing our threenager!
Nap time whining
See, he’s not always complacent and happy…but he still went for his nap without a full-on tantrum. 🙂
I told him a toy wasn’t his.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6arBIeK-48
Quite some time ago, I bought a duplicate Cars Mack Hauler
Someone doesn’t like the new rules.
We have probably 50 apps (half of them paid for) for Owen on the iPad, but ever since he discovered Tom’s games, he throws a shit fit (probably 75% of the time) if I try to get him to play his own age-appropriate games. It’s getting to the point where we’re going to delete our stuff or take it away from him entirely.
And it’s not so much that Tom’s games are going to scar him for life or anything, but rather that they’re more complicated and Owen gets frustrated because they don’t “work” for him or he opens up the website or tries to buy the full version of a free app or whatever. AND we paid money for apps he loved until he found the other ones. KIDS!
Initially we had our apps on separate pages in separate folders, but it didn’t take him long to figure out how to open other folders and swipe to get to other pages (where our stuff is).
So I decided we’d just have new rules. He can play anything on the first page and in his folders. Anything else, and the iPad gets taken away. And we had to start somewhere… This video comes in after I’ve already explained it once and he was already getting worked up. I know, poor kid. Having to follow rules. :>>
And with most of his tantrums, it was over about as soon as it started when he got sidetracked by wanting to watch Pocoyo or play with his trains or something.
MOUSE! MOUSE! MOUSE!
He wanted to watch Cars, so we were watching Cars. Then he decided he wanted to watch “mouse” (Stuart Little) and I said no, we were watching Cars because that’s what he asked for.
See ensuing tantrum (and this actually the tail end of the tantrum—it went on for a good few minutes BEFORE I started recording):
Poor little guy.
Poor little guy. His whole world has changed (disappeared) during the past three days and the outbursts and tantrums have reached an epic level (i.e. more in the past two days than his entire life). Once we realized HE realized things were missing (like when he asked for “more couch”) we started trying to say “chair gone—bye bye chair” which seemed to help. But he still had outbursts like this on and off all day (this one was just this morning after he ASKED to go out and play in the water—we took him out, but then he didn’t want to be out there).
The good thing is that for the most part, the outbursts are over within a few minutes at the most and then he calms down or goes back to being happy and playing with his cars or watching movies.
And there were really fun times, too, like when he discovered that we made him a tunnel!! And when we went and played/hid in the upstairs closet for a good 20 minutes…opening and closing the doors, saying “spooooky” and hiding from daddy.
I can’t wait until this is over and we can get back into his schedule. Everything was off yesterday due to the movers being understaffed, so instead of being done loading the truck by 5, they were here until 9:30. And since they were running behind, I postponed the carpet cleaner—so instead of him being done by 8, he was done at 10 (and he was cleaning the upstairs at Owen’s bedtime, so Owen didn’t go to bed until 9:30). But Owen was a trouper and lasted pretty well until about 9:15 when he started asking for “more nap.” So sad and cute at the same time…
Is it over yet?
The terrible two/terrible three/toddler years, that is? |-|
I’m not sure I’ll make it through…it’s not even 9a and I’m already done with Owen. (I’ve warned you I have NO patience.)
He had just finished breakfast (if you could call three bites of egg and two spoons of yogurt “breakfast”) and wanted to look at the fishies—from the chair. So he kept pulling my finger to try and get me OFF the chair. And of course I wouldn’t budge because he’s not allowed to stand on a chair (because he then tries to dunk his hands in the tank)…so he started whining.
I tried to sit him on my lap—which he DID. NOT. WANT. So the crying turned into screaming. I tried to direct him away from the tank, but he wanted ON. THAT. CHAIR. And it went on and on and on. Until he was crying so hard and so frantically that he barfed all over the place.
Yeah, this is one of those mornings where kid #2 is far, far, far from my thoughts. 😐