Temper Tantrums

Susanna threw a temper-tantrum this afternoon. She must have read what I wrote yesterday about discipline, because she was not going to let me off the hook today! I was eating an apple, and she LOVES apples, especially eating them big-people style (ya know, not all cut up and stuff). Well she wanted my apple. And she said please (well actually, she signed it), so I gave her a few bites, but then she decided that I was taking too long to take my bites and wasn't responding to her frantic please-signing fast enough, so she started fussing and then got downright mad and started doing the angry shake (when your body gets so tensed up that your muscles involuntarily spasm - is that a verb? well I just made it one then) and mad-crying. How am I supposed to respond to a 10-1/2-month-old tantrum? I can't exactly send her to her room to calm down. And she got a spanking, which may have informed her that what she was doing was bad, but didn't stop her from continuing. She is definitely starting to flaunt her sinful nature. No more vain hoping that MY child will be the one who happens to have avoided contracting one. And two is still a year away! Well, hopefully being our parenting guinea pig won't mess her up too bad... Anyone with a one year old have any suggestions? I ended up finishing my apple in the other room so she couldn't see it and in the absence of the object of her obsession, she went back to being the sweet little Susanna of yesteryear... I guess that ends it at a draw. Next time I need to be a clearer winner. Or at least a clearer authority. This is a hard occupation, only to be properly carried out by the grace and wisdom of our Heavenly Father, who has millions of sinful, whiny, temper-tantrum-throwing children to discipline. That makes me VERY thankful that I am not God (in addition to other reasons such as having control of the whole world in your hands - I'd be liable to inadvertantly destroy it after the first nanosecond).

Happier, but not less sinful, Susanna has just awoken and is talking about dada in her crib. I need to get her some dinner, so that ends this blog segment.