The Fit

Only 5 more months until Elaina turns the magical age of 2. Only 5 more months and she'll be a full-blown 2 year-old. Can you believe it?

As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect" and Elaina is working on her fit-throwing-technique of a typical 2 year-old. As of late, my sweet, beautiful angel child has been creeping over the line of flat out bratty behavior. Oh, the joy.

Rarely does Elaina have reason to throw a fit, but in the past few days she's been throwing herself to the ground over the silliest, little things that don't happen to go her way. She's been somewhat of a crybaby when she decides to protest her displeasure in our parenting abilities. Oh, the joy.

When the mood strikes her and she dramatically plummets to the ground, Eric and I simply ignore her and walk away without a word. No matter what's going on, her tantrum will be ignored. Screaming and yelling haven't yet found their way into the routine fit, but the fake cry is always a must. It's no wonder that Eric has taken to calling her D.Q. as in "Drama Queen."

Like any other naive, wishful-thinking mother, I want to blame it on the fact that she is growing and just seems to be getting more tired earlier in the evening. Of course, Eric and I try to stay pretty consistent on our evening routine and regular bedtime schedule for her, but on the occasion that she just can't even sit up any more or keep her eyes open, we easily go along with her early bedtime request. Fortunately, there have been no more bedtime battles and no more attempts to go AWOL from her crib.

So this behavior has only recently begun and I hope and pray that it disappears just as quickly as it came about. I'm trying to savor the final months of my precious one year-old in all her splendor. In the meantime, I'm trying to keep my floors just a little bit cleaner for the occasional melt-down.