tantrums

I have heard about tantrums. Kids lose it over the silliest thing, throwing themselves on the ground, crying hysterically. I thought I had a few more months before Ada would hit this stage but I'm afraid we are already there.

It started last week when we made a stop at Costco on the way home from work/day care. Ada was happy while we were shopping and was really happy because we let her push the cart. Well hang on to the handle of the cart while I pulled it around the aisles. But once we got in line we couldn't push the cart anymore and Ada had a full out melt down. She screamed and cried and moaned in agony, she threw her frail little body at my legs and threw her head back so that I could see just how upset she was. This was apparently just the tip of the iceberg. What has followed is an almost daily tantrum, and until today only when Ada was really tired and over stimulated. This morning however, she pushed the tantrum cycle into second gear. I dared to put on a cute vest over her t-shirt this morning and it set off a tantrum that lasted well into our commute to work/daycare. I even caved before we left the house and took the vest off, but then I put on socks AND shoes. She was not happy about the socks and then even more unhappy about the shoes. To demonstrate her extreme dislike of both the socks and the shoes she stomped around the kitchen, occasionally stopping to glare at her sneakers. She quieted down as I brought her outside but as soon as she saw the car she started up again, twisting her body, pulling at her car seat buckles, screaming the saddest cry you have ever heard. I tried to cheer her up by singing, making silly faces, bribing her with food - nothing worked. Finally we turned up the radio, ignored the crying and eventually when she got it all out she stopped. I tried turning around a couple of times to make peace but that just set her off again, so I just let her be. She did start babbling a bit as we got closer to work but I didn't dare tempt the tranquil vibe we had in the car by actually turning around to look at her. I'm afraid she has us right where she wants us, lets just hope this phase doesn't last too long.