7.24.2003

Isobel threw a hair-raising tantrum late this afternoon. I suspect its onset was due to low blood sugar since her dinner consisted of a single nectarine, but she denies this.

Our yard is at the bottom of an amphitheatre-shaped canyon, with houses all 'round us on the upper slopes. She chose to have her fit on the porch, so once again I find myself not really surprised that our extra-fancy neighbors pretend we don't exist--obviously we beat our children; why else would they make such a racket time after time?

Sigh. If these people every made eye contact, let alone talked with us, they might know that we have a boy who gets very excited about the sound of his own voice, and will joyfully vocalize at the top of his lungs, indefinitely. They'd know that we have a super-bright and spunky and therefore highly combustible girl who, during twilight/the witching hour, is prone to tantrums because Leelo and I went out the door first and she wanted to do that! In the mean time we'll just leave ugly things like dead floor lamps next to the back of the garage where they can see them, and we can't.

Now, I don't know how other folks handle tantrums. I've gotten stinky looks that make me suspect they're willing to tell me, but too bad--my job is to make my kids understand that tantrums are ineffective as bargaining tools. (My job is not to bend over for complete strangers.) Kids, you can yell and scream all you want. I'm not going to get riled, I'm not going to give in, and you're sure as hell not going to get whatever you're screaming about. Believe it or not, folks, the kids usually wear themselves out after five minutes or so. And they sulk and toss grouchy comments at you afterwards. Be strong! Eventually they figure out that tantrums aren't useful. But don't let their blood sugar get too low--then all bets are off.

None of the above tantrum advice really applies to Leelo. He's not yet able to communicate well enough, for one thing, and besides his tantrums are usually 30 seconds of: scream, drop & roll, protest protest, oh fine okay you can pick me up.

Tomorrow is the dreaded DAN doctor meeting. Oh please please please don't let us get put on a casein/gluten free diet! Please!

Today Leelo spent his day putting various teletubbies on the couch, then delightedly telling me "Po is on the couch! Tinky-Winky is on the couch!" Which reminds me, if you really want to torture a child who delights in consistency, give him a set of teletubbies like ours: Three talk, one doesn't (guess which one I bought and grandma didn't). Poor Leelo spends probably too much time trying to get Po to talk. One of these days I'll brave Toys-R-Us and go get the talking one.

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