The Tantrum Loop

Sunday morning Owen got stuck in a terrible-twos tantrum loop.  He took my hand and wanted to bring me someplace, but when I stood up to go, he got mad at me for following him.  Then when I stopped he got mad and came over and asked me to lift him up, but then when I stooped to do so, his body went all boneless and he sunk to the ground to prevent the lifting.  And then when I didn’t lift him, he got mad and stood up to take my hand to bring me someplace.  Etc., etc.  During this time he had tears spurting out of his eyes and racing down his cheeks, he kept saying his angry, oooo, ooooo, and every few seconds he would try to bite me on the leg.  Fun times.

Owen thinking, well she wouldn't do what I wanted.

Of course, it was hard for me not to laugh when this was happening, because the whole nonsensicalness of a terrible two tantrum is ridiculous.  Plus he was obviously so mad!  And he didn’t know why or about what, yet kept the rage going.

Peekabooing in happier times.

I kept trying to distract him out of the loop, but it didn’t work, so finally I went on a Trader Joe’s run and Sean took Owen up to the attic to play guitar.  When I came home, I met the two of them leaving the house for a walk to the nearby campus, so I joined them and found this spring lovely in the forest.

Those are pansies, right?  Which reminds me of a pansy story…years ago when I was young and lithe and living in Boston, a friend of mine stated that he didn’t like pansies because they were such an “old lady” flower (why that should be a negative thing is not as clear to me now as it was when I was 22).  I protested, but then a few days later I was walking behind two such old ladies, when one said to the other, “I just love pansies!”  And the other replied, “Me too, I just love their little faces!”  Humpf.