Life with a Toddler

Because my life doesn't revolve around work anymore...We were getting ready for the library one afternoon, and I explained to my daughter she would need to put some pants on so we could go. I helped put her pants on after snack, at which point the tantrum erupted. “NO PANTS!” She dissolved into tears, and as I tried to explain why she needed the pants, she flung herself on the ground in a screaming mess. I tried without success to comfort her, and, feeling my own temper rise, I decided to take a break from it all in another room. She followed me, after she took off her pants in the other room, still crying, “NO PANTS.” Then, as suddenly as a light turns on or off, she asked for “cuddles.” So, we cuddled, and I again explained that to go to the library, she needed to be wearing pants. I asked if she wanted to wear a different pair of pants and heard, “Yes. Blue!” She happily put on the blue pants, and off we went to the library.

At the library we read a book about a duck. She seemed interested, and I told her we could take it home, but she said, “no.” Several times over the course of the library visit she picked up the duck book again, but every time I offered to check it out, she said “no.” We went home, opened the door, and I hadn’t even set my keys down before she asked, “duck?” She broke down in tears when I said the duck book was still at the library.

Ahhhh…toddlers.