So, to continue, The girls decided that it was time to push all boundaries. The fun part was always what happened when we held firm. Smallest child is in the hitting phase, and packs a mean left! She has decided that since oldest daughter never had the “terrible twos”, she’s gonna get us twice as bad. Favorite phrase? “No way!” said with an almost valley-girlish inflection. After I cut down the aforementioned tree, she ran about shouting “Tree….Crash!” Yes, she does speak in exclamation points. Her vocab is growing exponentially , as is the case at her age. She refuses to keep her shoes on, and has learned to remove her own diaper. That one is kinda scary…

PM and I did not manage to get away as I had to arrange, way back when. Money is always a factor in these things.

So, how did we deal with temper tantrums and hissy fits? Mostly, we laughed. A child acting out wants attention, wants YOU to be as upset as they are. Laugh, and the situation defuses fairly quickly. Afterwards, be sure to talk to them and reassure them that you understood that they were upset, and that you laughed because they looked funny or some such appropriate thing.