Plugging Up the Hole

Princess did not! have! a tantrum! this weekend! Not one. Not even while fighting withe Peanut. Yelling, yes. Telling Peanut to shut up, yes. But no slapping or throwing anything. Seriously, I am reasonably sure that has never ever never happened before. Ever.

Here's the thing: I think she replaced the tantrums with something. She downsized, but she's still filling the space.

I think she dropped her brain somewhere and did not pick up it (I'll take it! I'll take it! I don't care! Just no more tantrums!). And I say that affectionately. Here are some examples:

• I made it rain by flushing ice cream down the toilet. (Huh?)*
• Will we fit in this car? (Not unless we have suddenly and mysteriously lost a family member)
• What is "twist?" (It's the kind of ice cream you always have every single time we go out for ice cream)
• Is this how I use ___? (Said while using said vary familiar daily item correctly)
• Are we having beans for dinner? (Asked while looking at the beans on her plate)
• Are we going swimming? (Asked after being directed to attire self in bathing suit for a known trip to the beach)
• Can I have ___? (Insert non-fruit, non-vegetable item for fruit- or vegetable-only between-meal snack and multiply by seven before Mommy looses her marbles and insists Princess go outside and not have said between-meal snack at all)
• I'm going to have this vegetable. 'K? (Said while holding up a bag of deli turkey meat)
• Can you tell me what orange and blue and green and yellow are? (Um. Colors.)

But here's how I see it. She's (maybe) replaced tantrums with attention-getting behavior that, while, um, weird, is more socially acceptable. And I am good with that. Because next it'll be something smaller, and smaller, and smaller yet. If I'm not mistaken, eventually it will be filled with....her personality.

I think I'm going to meet my daughter!





*Immediately denied saying this. I think it had something to do with a tradition of her friend's where they flush ice cubes down the toilet and wear pajamas backward to provoke a snow day. Still unknown: was ice cream actually flushed down the toilet on the sly? And does Princess truly take credit for the rain?