The Terrible Two's are Here

Despite all the things I've complained about, I think my daughter has a fairly good disposition. She's been a relatively happy child (and very smiley) ever since she was an infant. She hasn't been perfect as she has learned to push my buttons for many months now but overall, she's really sweet. I was even hoping that the "Terrible Two's" would skip her, as I've read that not every toddler goes through it. Unfortunately, I think it has actually hit relatively early. I think it may have started a couple of weeks ago. She has started to throw tantrums or have melt downs, sometimes for no good reason at all. A couple of weekends ago, we were at a Cherry Blossom Festival where there was a cheesy train ride thing that would go around the park for a few minutes, towing parents and kids in 3 little train cars. Since Scarlett has been into trains lately, we got in line to ride it. Well, she didn't understand the whole waiting-in-line concept. When the train conductor (some bored teenager trying to make some pocket change, probably) stopped to let people on, Scarlett wanted to get on. I tried to explain to her that we have to wait for the next go-around but she couldn't understand the concept and she totally melted down. It was a bit embarrassing but there was nothing I could do, except to stand there until she cried it out. She's also had many melt downs at home recently, especially before dinner. She always wants me to hold her when I'm trying to put dinner together in the kitchen. We're not talking about having her wait a whole hour while I cook up dinner. No, I've learned months ago that I shouldn't even try to do that. Nowadays, I usually cook dinner before I pick her up from daycare. On days when she's not at daycare, I usually try to make dinner during her nap time or just resort to Costco ready-to-eat foods. So in the five minutes that it takes for me to heat up left overs or to dish out dinner that I've made already, Scarlett has decided to have a melt down because I won't pick her up. I'm talking rolling-on-the-ground full-on crying and thrashing. You might say, maybe because she's hungry. Well, she's usually not. Most of the time, especially on daycare days, she hardly eats much of her dinner. She's stocked up enough on food at daycare to reject most of the dinner that I offer her.

She had a melt down (for no obvious reason) at daycare yesterday when I went to pick her up. I was almost glad that the daycare providers saw it; otherwise, they probably wouldn't believe me. They tell me that she's always happy all the time at daycare - never cries or get into fights with anyone. Well, I can believe them, because she's usually a happy child and a social butterfly but the tantrums she's been throwing lately are just so out of character sometimes. Today, she had 3-4 melt downs so they're increasing in frequency. I've read that the Terrible Two's may start anywhere from 18 months to before 3 years old. Since it started early for her, maybe I can look on the bright side and hope that it will end well before she turns 3.