Meltdown

EE is a very bright kid for her age, but her emotional development is still at an age-appropriate level--or less. She can go from normal to an emotionally unstable, crying, irrational child in about two seconds. Of course it tends to happen more often when she is tired or overstimulated or is just having a bad day. Last night it happened out of the blue while brushing teeth. She had put on a microscopic amount of toothpaste on her sister's toothbrush and was happy with that. (I must say that usually she is not in charge of dolling out toothpaste, I happened to be in the kitchen for 5 seconds when this happened) LC was thinking she needed a little bit more, and I gave her just a tad more (so the poor child could at least see it). This set EE off and there's no getting her back. It was a rough bedtime from there on out and I'm hoping she'll sleep in today and be all better when she wakes up. I hope, I said. A mom can hope, right?

LC on the other hand is a little bit more stable emotionally. Granted, she did go through a period this fall where I was "that mom" with the screaming two-year old who couldn't be calmed by anything but at the moment she is pretty good. If she starts crying about something, you just tell her to go to her room until she is done. She will go to her room without protest, shut her door, and come out later saying "Happy now!"

Dh and I are already bracing ourselves for a rough time with EE during the teenage years. At least we'll have had 7-9 years of practice by then. Oy vey.