Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Laughter really is the best medicine...

Last night, Kiddo was having a major meltdown in the middle of her bath. A combination of her schedule being off with the long weekend, her not eating more than half her lunch, and the excitement of the inauguration (her class ate in their classroom instead of the cafeteria and watched the inauguration on TV during their lunch period) all melded into a sensory kid meltdown extraordinaire.

At one point, she was just shouting. Yelling. Screaming. Carrying on at the top of her tiny-but-powerful lungs. I left the room (I mean, I would've noticed if she'd submerged herself, as noise would've STOPPED at that point) to get away from the headache-inducing wails. After a few - okay, more like ten - minutes, I walked back into the bathroom. Kiddo had progressed from the pure screaming to the abject sobbing portion of events, wanting to know why I had abandoned her in the midst of all her drama. "Because you were screaming your head off" was my response.

She sat there, soaked and scowling, and fixed me with a most evil "is she a teenager yet 'cause damn, that's 'I hate my idiot parents' perfection in a look already" glare. "I WAS NOOOOT!" she snapped. "Yes, you were." Huge eye roll from the tub.

"Moooo-oooooom! I was NOT screaming my head off." *gigantic, exasperated sigh* "My head is still ON, obviously."

Well, true enough. I busted out laughing and that made it significantly harder for Kiddo to maintain her baaaad attitude. Laughter is infectious, after all. The look of her attempting to keep the scowl in place when she was trying not to laugh made me laugh harder, which is about the only thing that saved my sanity long enough to finish her bath and get her into her jammies.

So far today, so good - Kiddo got up easily, ate a full breakfast and was dressed and ready to go in enough time to watch a little TV before we have to head out the door. Which we do, right now, actually. Let's hope the day continues on a calmer, more even keel!

5 comments:

Elisabeth said...

I love it when kids state the obvious to a comment like that.

When I was a nanny, one of the twin girls (around 4 years old) was picking her nose and eating them. I kept telling her to stop and that it was gross. She said, "They're my boogies and I can eat them if I want to". No arguing with that.

Debbie said...

Laughter is the only thing that can break through a fit like that. I know. I have a daughter that has pitched her fair share, as have I!

Vickie said...

That was funny!!

My 8 year old is already doing the eye roll thing and pretending she doesn't hear me. Man, it is only gonna get worse. At least that is what I am told.

Femina said...

It used to make me SO MAD when someone made me laugh in the middle of a really good tantrum. It's so hard to pout while you're laughing! :D

LMAlphonse said...

I love how literal kids can be...