More on tantrums

2 1/2 is an interesting age especially for Heath who just doesn't have the best communication skills yet. When things don't go his way and he can't get across what he wants, it's tantrum time! He can go for total sweetheart to Tasmanian devil in about 3 seconds flat and it's not a pretty transformation.

Just in case you're wondering how things went at the gym after Heath's last tantrum over a toy... They got worse before they got better. On Thursday, Grant had his last swim lesson and as soon as we pulled into the gym parking lot Heath started to sniffle then all out wail. I firmly kept heading for child care not about to give into this little terrorist. I got him checked in and explained to one of the teachers that I really didn't mind if he cried the entire time we were gone. Basically he's figured out that if he cries enough he doesn't have to be there and Grant and I must be going somewhere fun without him. The teacher said that they would try to help him transition into playtime.

Well 15 minutes later the dreaded page happened. Heath was still crying in child care. I assured the teacher that he was fine. He wasn't sick. He was just trying to manipulate the situation and I for one wanted him to stay in there. The teacher agreed to give him 5 more minutes to calm down. When I called back Heath was still crying, so I was forced to go see him. Of course by the time I made it down to child care he had stopped crying. Evidently 21 minutes is his maximum crying time. But by the time I was there, Heath had seen me and was not about to let me leave without him.

I tried to make watching the remainder of Grant's swimming lesson as unfun as possible for Heath. That meant no walking around the pool or gym. He had to just sit and watch the class. He didn't seem to worried about it all. The good news of the day was that Grant did get promoted to the next swimming level even though he needs a little work on floating and swimming on his back.

I decided not to brave volleyball at the gym on Friday. Instead we all went on an outing with friends which had it's ups and downs but no all out fits. Today was open play for volleyball again and I was determined to make it in even if it meant I had to resort to diversions. I decided to have the boys eat lunch at the gym so that Heath would have something "fun" to do as soon as he got there and hopefully he wouldn't think about having another melt down. That child loves to carry around his yellow lunch box. As soon as lunch was packed Heath marched off with his lunch box and stood patiently waiting at our front door. Once we arrived at the gym Heath was happily toting around his lunch and ready to go into child care. Not a tear in sight. He actually kept bidding me good bye before he was even really checked in. Evidently this mom outsmarted the Tasmanian devil this time around. Wish me luck on the next round!