Not so Magical Vivian

Meanwhile, Vivian has been going through a rough phase. Welcome the tantrums. Except it took me a while to realize what was going on. Her tantrums aren't anything like Pip's .. which involve extreme anger, flailing, yelling, crying, and screaming. Generally several good kicks are thrown in. Vivian just turns on this annoying whine/cry and yanks on me incessantly.

This may not be as frightening as Pip's version, but man does it drive me crazy. Doesn't get what she wants ... "waaaaahhhhh! Mommy!" (yank, yank, yank). Ugh, I'm going crazy around here..

Plus she's decided bedtime is for the birds and she'd much rather play. So every night she cries at the top of her lungs for about an hour. We go in every so often to reassure her (she yells "go!" to us, pointing outside of her room and urging us to let her out). This is not fun.

About the only thing that consoles her is reading to her animals. She has these 4 board books that belong to a set. We've noticed before naps she'll read them to her stuffed animals, eventually falling asleep calmly. Here's a little clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLqPOu9fw0Q

So at nighttime we've started leaving a nightlight on for her and encouraging her to read to her animals before bed as well. This has worked a little. Plus the Ferberizing always does the trick. We're down to usually 10 minutes of crying max and one stop in for reassurance.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to see the bright side of the tantrums (this is not easy and I am constantly finding myself irrationally annoyed by my sweet pea) -- it's a great model for Pip. She'll be freaking out because she can't climb into the pilot "by self" (she insists on doing EVERYTHING this way ALL THE TIME) or because she can't put on her shoes "by self" or because I'm not letting her fill her sippy cup with milk "by self" ... whatever it is ... and start the dreaded whine/cry/yank combo. I get to look at Pip, who also seems exasperated, and say "see Pip, this just isn't fair." And he seems to nod back at me, like, "yeah, maybe tantrums aren't quite such a great idea." Ahh -- a new alliance is developing.