Wow

Though Ben's birthday isn't for a few months I think we just experienced our first terrible two tantrum. It originated because he wanted to play an iPod game and I asked him to say, "Please." Most of his cohorts in playgroup say please and thank you (in some form or another), so it's past time for us to start teaching Ben. However, when I didn't immediately give him the iPod he flipped out. At first I tried getting him to just say please, but he wouldn't stop crying.

Then I went into ignoring mode. I tidied the kitchen and re-stocked his diaper bag all to the tune of screaming. When he started throwing magnets from the refrigerator I intervened, but I ignored him for a good 10 minutes. To no avail. So I tried to calm him down with hugs and singing and soft talking. Also to no avail. Obviously at some point he forgot what the tantrum was originally about and switched to insisting on having his binky. Well, that wasn't happening while he threw a fit so I tried various tactics to get him to calm down. Eventually after about 45 minutes of this he calmed down enough to read The A Book and now he's taking a nap.

Holy crap, people. I'm not even sure what to say. I'm proud that I didn't lose my cool, because I felt like I could've several times during that tirade. Now I just have a headache.