The photo above represents the tail end of a massive tantrum that Miss LB threw yesterday afternoon. I didn't think it was possible for my sweet and generally well-behaved little baby to throw such a tizzy. I suppose we have well and truly arrived at the toddler phase.Yesterday afternoon, LB and I had just returned from shopping, and we were having a little poke around the garden before going in to put the groceries away. The weather was gorgeous and autumnal, and LB was happily using her rake and shovel to slap at the flowers and push the dirt around. After about ten minutes, I figured that we had better go inside and get the milk and yogurt in the fridge. I told LB that we had to go inside but that we would be out again soon. "Bye-bye garden. See you soon!" "Bye-bye flowers. See you soon!" "Bye-bye shovel and rake." She quickly caught on to what was going to happen, and she started to shake her head and push me away, but I was able to distract her and get her into the house by letting her bring in the rake.
But once we got in, the tanty truly began. I set her on the floor, where she threw the rake across the room and started crying and screaming loudly. She sat in the middle of the living room for a while but when this didn't get a reaction out of Mama, she came into the kitchen where I was putting groceries away and stood there blubbering and yelling at me. I picked her up and said she was okay and that if she didn't calm down we weren't going back to the garden (this was probably lost on her.) I tried to distract her by turning on cartoons (Curious George was on) and putting a few cheese crackers in the little white pot. This failed, however, and the performance really got underway. She threw herself across her nursing pillow, screaming, and then crawled into the the little space between the bookshelf and the computer desk where she sat crying and peeking out at me to make sure I was still aware of her misery. Eventually, she gave this up as well and I heard her padding through the living room to her room, where, when I went to check on her, I found her sprawled out among her toys screaming and crying.
Every now and then she'd get distracted by the cartoons or the crackers (like in the photo above) and stop crying, but, if I got near her and asked her if she was feeling better she'd start the whole thing up again. I even saw some friends walking by outside with their baby, and when I carried the crying LB out to say "Hi," she pointed at the garden, babbling and crying, no doubt telling our friends about her cruel and unjust Mama.
This all went on and off for about an hour, which probably meant she wasn't really mad about the garden anymore but had just worked herself up into such a state that she couldn't calm down. Eventually, however, she came toddling over to me, pointing at the little kitten on her shirt, and saying "Woof, woof," which I guess meant that she had forgiven me. I picked her up and gave her a little cuddle. Needless to say, we did not go out to play in the garden again.
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