Tantrums

Last night, after Salma had finished her dinner, she asked me if she can watch her favorite DVD. I said, "No, we have to go upstairs and get ready for bed."

She then proceeded to throw a tantrum.

Nonetheless, I carried her upstairs, kicking and screaming. I continued to change her clothes and change her diaper. She still did not stop her tantrum. The type of crying during the tantrum usually begins with fake crying, but then continues to become real crying when she starts to get really frustrated. At the point when I had finished changing her diapers, she was still at her fake crying stage. I then told her that I was going to have a quick shower and say my evening prayers. I told her that instead of watching her DVD, she can play with her puzzles and read her books. I promised her that when I was done, I would read her "Silly Tilly" (her current favorite book). She continued her screaming and just ignored me basically.

While I was in the shower, and out of her view, she was quiet. I could not hear any screaming. Right when I switched off the water, she started her wailing again. But I took my time drying myself off before stepping out of the bathroom. By the time I opened the door, she was so frustrated at having to wait for me, that real tears started coming out, and so the real crying stage began. I felt a little bad, but I had to perform my evening prayers. She cried throughout, asking me to come to the bed. When I was finally able to hug her, she refused (merajuk la tu). Then to distract her, I asked her if she wanted to color in her coloring book? The new idea made her stop crying and she said yes. So I brought her crayons and her Winnie-the-Pooh coloring book to the bed where she sat.

She took her crayon and flipped the pages of her coloring book, but all the pages had some conteng/scribbles already in it. I found a page with the least amount of conteng, and proceeded to color in Pooh's hat. She didn't like that, and began her tantrum again! She wanted a new book. So off I went to search for an untouched coloring book. I had bought 3, and hid the other 2 somewhere, but couldn't remember where I put them. My search took quite awhile, and during this time, her wailing got louder and louder. By the time I reached her with the 2 new coloring books, she was exhausted! All she could do was hold the 2 coloring books in her hands without opening them; she was so tired. (But she was still crying). When I tried to coax her to open one of the books, she would not. And it was just the funniest thing to see! She was too tired to even stop crying.

Of course she got angry when I laughed, hitting me with her two coloring books. But I just couldn't help it. Finally, I coaxed her to nurse (breastfeed). By this time, it was late (for her at least), almost 9 pm. She spent so much energy throwing a tantrum that it was past her bedtime. She didn't even get to color. While she breastfed, she insisted on holding on to her crayons and one of the coloring books. She would not let them go, even when I promised her that she could color right after she woke up in the morning.

She fell asleep holding on to a Tigger coloring book and her box of crayons.

In the morning, after she had showered and got dressed, just as I had promised, I let her color in her new coloring book. Which she did. Before leaving for school, she said to me, "Mummy, simpan color." (Asked me to put away her coloring books and crayons).

"Okay, you can color some more when you get back home."

"Thank you, mummy."