The 40 minute tantrum

Well, the 3's are definitely eventful. After a good afternoon of the girls pleasantly playing together, snuggling and playing with mommy...the happy times came to an abrupt halt. Just before dinner, we experienced the usual pre-dinner defiance of getting hands washed. Once the girls were in their booster seats, I put a bib on Emily and rolled up her sleeves because we were having spaghetti tonight and I didn't want to get sauce on her shirt. I proceeded to do the same with Savannah and she got mad, rolled her sleeves down and started throwing a fit. I told her to roll them back up or she'd have to take her shirt off to eat because I didn't want spaghetti sauce stains on her shirt. This made her even more mad and she yelled "no" and started kicking at me. I told her fine, then took off her shirt. Then the ultimate tantrum began. Lots of kicking and screaming while in her seat. Seth then took her to her room and put her in time out. The screaming got even louder and more shrill. This went on at this level for about 30 minutes and then she couldn't scream anymore, but she was still throwing a fit for another 10 minutes. We are trying not to give the girls any attention when they throw fits like that...so I sat outside her door, just waiting for her to calm down before I could go in to talk to her. That was hard, she was crying and very upset, but I knew she would learn that screaming and crying will not get her attention if I ignored it.

Finally once she calmed down I went into her room and picked her up and sat her on my lap and hugged her and told her we loved her and then explained why she was put in time out. The rest of the evening went so smoothly after that. She was extra cooperative at bedtime--no resistance at all. We'll see what tomorrow night holds.