Temper Tantrums

Temper tantrums amaze me. They used to stress me out, but after going through a few kids, the novelty of them has worn off and I am amused.

Well, unless I'm in public, then it's just embarrassing.

Anything can set off a temper tantrum in CamCam. If something doesn't go the way he wants, rage ensues. I do not understand how a person can go from complete calm to extreme rage in less then 5 seconds.

Sometimes he'll be playing with baby legos and the pieces won't stay together. He yells, throws ALL the pieces across the room, throws himself down to the floor and has a fit. Yesterday we were out and walking from the van to the toy store. I'm not sure what path he wanted me to take to the toy store, but apparently it wasn't a straight path, because he started yelling nonsense at me and when I didn't comply, he dropped to the ground and arched his back and yelled, kicked and screamed. There is nothing like walking through a parking lot, having your 4 year old walking on ahead of you, carrying your baby in the moby wrap, and having your 2 year old decide to drop to the ground just as you are crossing the busy part. Often one of his siblings will take something he wants and CamCam yells a loud "NO" followed by lots of angry gibberish and usually an attempt to hit them, and finally he ends with the classic drop to the ground with screaming and kicking.

However, most of his temper tantrums are thrown as a result of me. He'll be drawing on my health insurance papers so I take the pencil away. Fit. He's drawing on his sister's homework and I take the pen away. Fit. He's running around the living room trying to spray his brother with a bottle of Windex and I take the Windex away. Fit. He asks me for apple juice, and I give him a cup of apple juice, but apparently it isn't the kind he had in mind. (huh?) Fit. He's had 4 cookies and asks for another but I say no. Fit. He asks for "ca-ca" and I give him some crackers since 99% of the time ca-ca = crackers, but apparently not this time. Fit.

Today he wanted a snack, and he handed me goldfish, cheezits and animal crackers. I put some goldfish in a bowl, followed by animal crackers, and cheezits on top. Well he couldn't see the fish, so he starts yelling "ish, ish, ish," at me, and I pushed aside the crackers and told him that he had fish, they were at the bottom. Next came a very loud "NO! ISH" followed by the bowl being thrown across the room. Silly boy, now he wasn't getting ANY cheezits, OR animal crackers, OR fish.

Here's what CamCam's temper tantrums look like:

First, he throws himself to the floor and wails and cries as he rolls around a bit

Screaming and covering his face in the

"woe is me" pose

Lots of crying and he likes to bury his face into the floor. This is his "show of desperation."

Temper tantrums are very physical. For some reason he started moving backwards as he cried and kicked.

I'm really not sure why anger would bring this move on. Up and over the chair legs he goes.

And finally he reached his destination, inside the chair and all was well.
Just like that, his fit ended.

The only shot I'm missing is when he looks back to make sure I'm still watching. He was mad I was taking his picture during his very dramatic show, and so hid his face and never did the typical "she's still watching me do this so I should keep going, right?" look. Like I said, it's very entertaining.