Keeping it Real

From the way I write, you'd probably think that Charlotte is an angel. And she is, for the most part. She still has never come out of her room during nap time or at night, and even if she's awake in there, we hear her talking happily to herself.  And when any adult is around her, she just turns on the charm, mostly because our friends play with her.

But.

This parenting business is getting hard.  Charlotte is deep in the throes of Terrible Two Tantrum Land.  She has tantrums daily, and most oftentimes, multiple times a day.  It's anyone's guess what it's going to be about, but the tantrums mainly revolve around Charlotte wanting something and not getting it.  And it's so easy to set her off.  Just tonight, when we arrived home from daycare, she immediately started whining for a snack. I told her that she couldn't have a snack because I'd be making dinner right away in order for her to get to gymnastics on time. She accepted this explanation, mostly. But then she noticed her Playdoh on her table and asked to play with it. I explained that we didn't have time to play with the Playdoh. This, too, set off a tantrum.  She continued whining, "But whyyyyy? I want to play with Playdoh!"  When she figured out she wasn't going to get what she wanted, Charlotte flung herself on the floor in quite the dramatic fashion.

Hmm. What else sets off tantrums?
Not wanting to get in the bathtub.
Not wanting to get out of the bathtub.
Not getting dessert because she didn't eat enough of her dinner.
Wanting Mommy to take her to daycare.
Wanting Daddy to pick her up from daycare.

The list goes on and on. Sure, it's easy to get her to stop crying, by simply giving her what she wants.  But obviously, we can't do that.  A child cannot subsist on cookies alone.  The newest fun is when she shouts "That's not fair, Mommy!" or "That's not nice, Daddy!" So, I'm not sure what else there is to do but ignore her.  It's hard, and the whining and tantrums are definitely getting to us, but then she'll just do something so cute that we forget about the tantrums, at least for a few minutes. :)