Going on three

Emma Mae has six more days as a two year old. I am praising God. Because my theory is that when she turns three we will see the end of the terrible two tantrums. Jake never went through the terrible two's. He was a perfect little angel two year old. Turns out, he was just biding his time, waiting for me to let down my guard. He hit us with the terrible three's. But, I swear the day he turned four he went back to being my sweet boy again. Thus, my theory about the terrible tantrums lasting for exactly one year. I cannot wait.

Saturday, I took the kids to Target and promised them we could go to the pet store afterwards if they were good. They were very good in the store so we headed out to get in the car to go to Petco. Emma refused to get in her car seat. She threw the biggest fit about it. It seriously took me ten minutes to get her buckled in. She had acquired the strength of ten warriors and fought me tooth and nail. Well. After that, you know I could not take her to the pet store. That would have been bad parenting. I felt bad for Jake because he was being perfectly reasonable but I had to tell the children we would no longer be going to see the puppies and kitties. Emma acted like I had cut off her arm or something. What ensued was the biggest, baddest, most awful temper tantrum ever witnessed in the state of Texas. She screamed the entire way home. She was yelling "MAMA! I want to go to the pet store! MAMA! You are making me very CR-AAANK-YYY! MAMA! YOU HEAR ME MAMA?"

Why, yes I do hear you Emma. The people in the car next to us hear you as a matter of fact. I calmly informed her that we were not going to the pet store because she was yelling and being ugly. To which she replied, "MAMA! I NOT YELLING ANYMORE!!" Ya'll. She so was.

We came home and she was still yelling and kicking my car seat. So I took her to her room and told her she was in time out until she could calm down. Then I tried to shut her door. That's when she acquired super human speed and beat me to the door and threw it open again. So I had to peel her off the door, toss her in her room, shut the door quickly and stand there and hold the door closed. I almost felt bad. Then I heard her screaming "MAMA! You do NOT tell me what to do! I WILL NOT stay in my room forever and ever and ever." It was a doozy. The whole thing lasted about thirty minutes but it felt like an eternity. So, needless to say I am counting down the days until three gets here. Three? Don't let me down, okay? I need you to be the year of the calm Emma Mae. Also, the year she lets me put clips and bows in her hair. Thank you. LM