Mother of all Tanturms

Ugh -- Beanie had an epic tantrum today - in public no less :-(

We had a lovely day planned and its started very well with wake up and breakfast and getting dressed. All done happily with no fuss.

I was taking her to the car wash for the first time and planned to go to a big park to play with the beach ball. I have a sloping driveway so we never get to really play with balls outdoors.

She enjoyed seeing the car being washed and wiped down. It was sweet because she got a bit worried when the guy drove the car out of sight for a few minutes. She was very concerned about " my kai".

After the car wash we went to the library area only to find that park was closed for construction.

Really?? Who does park construction is Spring.Summer - that is what winter is for given it does not snow here.

So with nothing else to do and since it was only 11am, I decided (with misgivings) to take her to the park with the swings. We have never left that place happily, not sure what I expected today -- but it was way worse.

We get on the swing and she is laughing, happy. Its a beautiful morning, cool breeze...lots of families.

Beanie asks me to push her higher which I oblige.  Then after about 10 min she starts fussing/crying "faster, faster".

So I push her higher  - paying attention to the unsupervised kids who kept running behind the swings. The parents were too busy talking!

She continues to have a mini meltdown, so I stop the swing and tell her calmly that the swing can only go so fast and so high and she needs to not get upset over it.

She says "all done" with the tantrum and we continues for about another 5 min.

Next thing I know she is howling in the swings saying "faster/faster" and even pushing her higher was not helping. She did that about three times and the second time I warned her if she started again we would have to leave.

So the third time, I tried to calm her again and getting nowhere decided it was a no-win situation, I may as well get her out and go home.

OMG - I had to haul her up screaming and crying...and physically carry all 31lbs of her across the playground and out

EVERYONE was literally turning their heads and staring at us.... I had of course parked the car far away so we had to go out and around the entire park.

Not fun!!

She kept screaming and twice along the way I put her down and tried to calm her down and tell her that we were leaving because of her tantrum, not for any other reason.

But she was beyond it.

At one point I had to lay her on the grass - the kid is heave. There was a cute Dad who had smiled at me earlier, and was nearby with his boys, so he gave me a sympathetic look.

I then hauled her back, keys dropping, backpack falling off and took her over the bridge - yes there was a foot bridge too! (why the HELL did I park so far away!!)

It did not end there...

I put her inside the car, shut the door and went around the other side -- she carried on screaming "Mommy Mommy" and "I want to go"...then "all done" -- big sobs, coughing, snot everywhere ....for at least 10 min in the car.


Finally I told her that we were NOT going back to the swings (in my mind EVER!) and if she sat in her seat and got calm we could do something else fun, but she first had to calm down.

She did eventually...so I told her since she was now calm we could continue to have a fun day.

We ended up going to see the fountain by the library, eating a banana on the bench and then into the library. She was fine and even got her diaper change obligingly.

I was dreading the time to leave. When it came I simply told her "I am hungry and going home, but you can stay her if you like by yourself" - to which she replied "no, I come home too".

We went out again to the fountain and she came without fuss to the car.

I praised her for being so well behaved, as I always do, and we left.

She fell asleep on the way home and is fast asleep right now...while I am still totally shaken by the whole experience.

She has had tantrums in the past, but I have never seen her scream like that.....

And all for what?

I had no intention of leaving the park when we did since we had only been there 15 minutes....it was her behavior that sort of forced me to. I have no idea what got into her and she wanted me to to really with the whole "faster: business.

No wonder they call it the terrible twos :-(

I had so many fun things planned this weekend including dinner out tonight.

I don't feel like doing any of it!