Monday, November 13, 2006
Suppertime Freakout
This one was epic.

Daddy called us to supper, bacon and pancakes. Emma was watching an episode of Little Einsteins. I paused the DVR so she could resume it after supper. She freaked out. She didn't want to stop her show. She didn't want to eat supper. She started crying. We strapped her in her chair. She pushed away her plate, crying and red-faced. We gave her milk, she pushed that away, continuing her tantrum. She kept slamming herself back in her chair. She wanted down to watch her show and she refused to eat anything. If we put it in range she'd try to bat it away.

We ate our meal and let her carry on. She was working herself up so bad that twice she almost puked. I was determined not to let her down one second early due to her behavior. Finally I told her she could get down when Daddy was finished eating. I asked him if he thought she deserved to watch her show after all that. Thank goodness he said "no." It would have been so easy to let her have her way, but we just couldn't reward her bad behavior with what she wanted.

She got down and Daddy went in and turned off the TV. She escalated the crying. She huddled herself in a corner and put on a show for a bit. Then she came and got me by the finger and led me to the TV. I said no. She got on the couch and cried some more. Finally she just sat there quietly. I sat on the other end of the couch working with the laptop. Eventually she came over and wanted to see baby on the computer. I closed the computer and said "Let's read a book." We read four books and then she was ready to get down and play with Daddy.

We'll offer her some milk and a snack before bed. Supper was a wash for her.
Written at 7:46 PM by Highlandgal.
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