Tantrums

A few days before her birthday, Emma had her first throw herself on the floor kicking and screaming tantrum. I had to check the calendar to make sure I didn't lose a year, and that she wasn't turning 2 instead of 1.

Emma finished her dinner before Kurt and I and asked to get out of her highchair. She immediately went to the sliding door and started banging on it. After being reprimanded, she started crying and pointing outside. We tried explaining to her that as soon as we were finished with dinner, we would go outside. As any of you who have 12 month olds know, there is no reasoning with a 1 year old since they haven't developed the capability to reason yet. As a result, Emma yelled and kicked for about 15 minutes before we were ready to take her out. *sigh* Once we were outside and she was strapped into her wagon, she was as happy and smiley as a lark in springtime.

Earlier this week, Kurt had a late meeting and wasn't home in time for dinner. About half way through dinner, Emma asked to get down and went to the bottom of the stairs and started yelling and crying. I asked what was wrong which brought on more tears and yelling. I thought I heard a "dada-dada" and asked if she wanted Daddy. She nodded yes. I tried to explain that he wasn't home yet but would be soon. She didn't believe me and just kept pointing upstairs. I took her upstairs and she pointed to our bedroom and when I showed her that he wasn't in there, she proceeded to point to every room on the 2nd floor. She was NOT a happy kid when I took her back to the living room and we still hadn't found Daddy! Luckily, I was able to distract her by getting her interested in going to the playground until Kurt got home!

We have the feeling that until she can communicate with words, that her tantrums will get more frequent so we're trying to be more perceptive to how she's feeling (hungry, bored, tired, etc) to try to avoid more of them.