I woke up to Caitlin crying "Bo Bo", which means she wants her bottle. I'm still feeding it too her, she won't hold it herself. She likes the comfort of snuggling into Mummy while she sucks on her bottle. I don't really mind that, (except when she tries it on in the middle of the night lol.) I like the cuddles too!
Breakfast went okay, then I tried to set her down so I could do the dishes. First tantrums commences. She straightens her legs out and screams "Nooooo" because she doesn't want to be set down. I tell her I'll be back in a minute, and she can crawl after me if she wants. She shrieks in this high pitched amazingly loud voice which I know is temper, rather than being sad. She's just pissed off and she's letting me know it.
Next up, I do her stretches with her on her legs and feet. She cries "Noooo," kicking me away so I can't do them. I dress her, but when it comes to me setting her down so I can get dressed, she wails. She throws things. She ain't happy. I try diversion, I try ignoring her, then as soon as she's quiet I scoop her and praise her up to try to reinforce good behaviour. Now we're both ready we set off for Toddlers.
She whinges a bit on the way round (I think she likes the sound of her own voice) then settles for about 5 minutes crawling around playing. Then she decides to just sit down and scream loudly, for no apparent reason. "Oh dear" another Mum comments. I'm thinking to myself, "I am going to have the child that is the little terror of the group".
When it was Tidy Up time a little girl is trying to explain to Caitlin that she has to take the car she is holding away as its Tidy Up time. "Noooo" Caitlin yells at the little girl. I try to encourage her to give the toys back. She gets louder. I have to remove her from the situation so the toys can be put away.
She whinges on the way home. I give in and give her her dummy, if only for a minutes peace lol. Back home she has lunch, naps and once up I hope her mood is better as it's stander time. Nope, she point blank refuses to go into the stander. I can't get her into it when she fusses so I reason she can stand at her table, not in the stander but at least it's something. Nope, she doesn't want to do that either. More wailing. Ok, back inside. My patience is wearing thin by now, time to go out, do some shopping. "Noooo" when I try to sit her on the sofa so I can put her coat on. More screaming. I try distracting her, she screams louder. I tell her if she doesn't stop she's going into Time Out. She screams louder. So Time Out it was. 1minute later, I come back in the room to find Caitlin's face red, her eyes puffy and she's sobbing uncontrobably. Guilt sets in. I give her a hug and a kiss and that's it forgotten about.
The shopping was pretty uneventful as I give her a bag of Cookies to eat the whole way round. When sitting her down to make Dinner she yelled when I tried putting her on the floor but only for around a minute which is very good for Caitlin! Then she got in her stander, played, had her bath, got a drink and snack and went off to bed. I be ready for collasping into bed beside her. Being a parent is the hardest job in the world. Yet, in a weird way, it's nice have a "normal" day. The kind of day that most parent's with a toddler has. Of course, we have still have cathing and physio every day but that's normal for us now, it's apart of our daily routine.
Yet after all that fuss, the tantrums, it only takes one special moment that makes up for it all. This morning she crawled into me and said "Hiya Mummy," I said "Hiya Caitlin", then she sat down smiled, looked at me and said,
"My Mummy."
That made my day. It's the best thing in the world, being her Mummy. I know I must and can deal with everything that life throws at me because as long as I have her (tantrums and all), we'll do just fine.
P.s She pulled herself up onto her feet at the sofa last week and took EIGHT side steps while at soft play! Woo hoo! In your face Spina Bifida!
