Temper tantrums.

Alexa has now had her first official temper tantrum. Last night when Daddy and I made her lie down and hold still so she could go to sleep, she threw a screaming, squirming fit. She was so mad at us. I could hardly hold on to her. She was so tired that after a few minutes of screaming her anger at us she fell asleep. Then today we had episode two. About 4:30 she was standing on the piano bench pounding on the piano. I told her to sit down, and she tried, but fell off the piano bench onto her back. She cried and cried, so I decided we both needed to get out of the house even though it was raining and almost dark. I put her coat on and we went outside. She wanted to play with the wagon, so I put her in it and started walking down the sidewalk. As I tried to turn the corner, she started yelling because she wanted to go down the gravel road toward the park. So I started walking that way, but I didn't have her gloves and her hood kept coming off, and even if I made it to the park it was to wet to play. I turned around to head back to the house and she got mad again and started screaming bloody murder. All the way home and into the house. Since she wouldn't calm down I put her in the van and took her to see daddy at work. She sat in his lap for about five minutes and then went to sleep. So we laid her on the couch to nap and I came home and made dinner. When David brought her home an hour later she was crying again, and she cried off and on throughout dinner, and then until it was time to go to meeting. So I went to meeting alone and David stayed home with her. Apparently, shortly after I left, she began to play happily with her toys and has been in a good mood ever since. I was really hoping we could skip this tantrum period. Alexa's speech therapist said her kids had terrible threes rather than terrible twos, and I am afraid this is proving to be the case with Alexa. It is kind of strange since I thought this kind of thing was caused by the child's inability to communicate what they want, but Alexa is doing really well with signing lately, and I certainly know what she wants, it just isn't something that she can have at that point. I am an advocate of giving kids choices, but staying awake when DH and I are sleeping, or going to the park in the rain are not choices I can give her.