Skip to main content

Whining Never Ends

Sometimes I think that Carl will whine forever.  Or I feel like he has been whining forever.  That he is just constantly on the verge of a full-blown tantrum and anything could set him over the edge.

A few common offenders include: having jam instead of brown sugar on his oatmeal, hating all the pajamas left in his bin, being asked to clean up his toys, seeing someone look at him funny, being told to stop when he gets to the street, or feeling the sun shine on his skin.

A few weeks ago, our neighbor told him he was a Duede and would be a Duede forever.  This sent him spiraling into a screeching fit.

This afternoon, I asked him to come home from the same neighbor's house and help me put Sven to bed for a nap.  That particular tantrum has only just ended and lasted 1/2 an hour!

Where has my sunny boy gone?  Or do I only imagine that there was a time when things were better?  Perhaps he has always been overly-sensitive.

No, I don't think I'm imagining it; the tantrums have gotten worse in the past few months.  This makes me wonder if they aren't baby-related.  I wonder, maybe he isn't getting enough attention? and then I feel guilty.

Whenever possible, I take him to the green chair in my room and sit with him until he calms down.  At first, his protests become even more vigorous and he will kick, scream, maybe even hit me or call me names. In those cases, I will physically restrain him until he calms down.  At some point, he will start sucking his thumb and smelling his fingers to calm himself.  Then he doesn't want to leave the chair and will begin to moan again as soon as I suggest he might be feeling better.  He's usually right about not being over it; if I push him out at that point, he will fall apart at the next available opportunity. But eventually, both he and I can agree that he is calm and life can move on.

Until the next explosion.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Our Potty Training Journey

February 2010 GOAL:  My initial goal was to introduce Soren to the toilet and make it a fun place to sit.  I have to admit that I also hoped that we would have some fortunate "accidents" that would lead to potty training success. STRATEGY:  My plan was to sit Soren on the toilet once a day and read him a couple of stories.  If he peed, I was planning to give him a candy. THE BAD NEWS:  The candy totally backfired.  The one time that he peed on the toilet, I gave him a candy and he had a full-on tantrum begging for more.  If I ever told him "When you pee on the potty, you can have a candy", he would begin screaming for the treat and be unable to focus on the toilet training. THE GOOD NEWS:  Soren was not afraid of sitting on the big toilet.  He actually really enjoyed it (when I was reading stories and not pimping rewards) and started asking to sit there any time his butt was bare. J June 2010 GOAL:  My goal was to potty train Soren within the month of June

Milestone: New Syllable

This feels like such a silly thing to report about but it's got me tickled pink. Today Soren learned, what I feel, is the most important of all the English syllables: "ma". And it's about time. After months and months of hearing nothing but "da da da da" all day long, it's a refreshing change. I'm pretty sure that "da da" and "ma ma" don't correlate to anything in his mind yet. Still, he's that much closer to calling me his "mama" and I can't say the approximations don't warm my heart.

Cake for Breakfast!

I was getting dressed when it suddenly got very quiet out in the living room. Soren had been contentedly babbling a moment ago and now it was silent. I'm sure you can imagine me, rushing half-panted down the hall, hoping nothing horrible had happened. At our last visit, my pediatrician filled my mind with horror stories of infant death; now gruesome scenes were flipping through my mind like a slide show on speed. Or like the scary tunnel in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". Expecting a disaster, I was relieved when this was what I saw in the living room: The night before, I'd left a slice of left-over cake on the arm chair. We'd had company and Soren had been in bed. When I'd forgotten it at the end of the evening, it had been far from my son's greedy grasp. But this morning, when it was still left behind, it was within easy baby reach and too unusual for him not to explore. No wonder he was so quiet! He'd been experimenting with an unk