Meltdowns are For the January Thaw, Not The Christmas Holidays

Brigid has been having a few true, no-holds-barred meltdowns lately. Last night was the latest, when she wanted to have her bath and I had to make her wait all of two minutes, and then when I tried to take away a calculator so she could take her bath, she pitched a major fit. She threw herself to the ground and wailed. When I managed to get the calculator out of her hand, she tried to hit me and screamed like she was being beaten. I managed to get her upstairs -- she couldn't climb them herself. I had to carry her. But she was hyperventilating and wiping the tears from her eyes. She perked up when she got in the bath, but it started all over again for a couple of reasons. One, we think she may have a urinary tract infection because when she was in the bathtub, she probably started to pee and stood up screaming "Ma-mee! Pee pees!" and started crying, scrambling to get out for me to hold her. She'd been reacting to her diaper in a similar fashion throughout the day, so we're going to call the doctor's. I hate the idea of her having to give them a urine sample, but it's the only way. But back to the meltdown: after calming her down about the ouchie pee pees, she wanted a bottle of tub paints that Auntie Shell gave her for Christmas. It had a picture of Elmo on it, and she kept screaming "Elmo! Elmo!" but after reading the lable it said do not give to children under three. So I hesitated giving it to her last night and she went ballistic. All the way down the stairs to her room and through the changing into PJs she kept crying Elmo! Elmo! It took me quite a while to calm her down. I think she's entering a phase that's hard for her to understand and she doesn't know how to regulate her emotions and reactions to things. Pretty typical, but pretty scary for her, too.

I got her to bed without too much screaming after me as I left her room. She fell asleep soon after, but she woke about 1 a.m. and fell asleep on my chest in the big chair. When I tried to transfer her back to the crib, she woke up screaming and clutching at me. I brought her into bed with me and she fell right back to sleep again on my chest. Can't say I minded too much because it's warm and fuzzy and reminds me of when she was a few weeks old. But she can't do this too often or she'll revert to wanting to sleep with us every night. I had to indulge her and thus myself last night. Plus, I really think she didn't feel right last night.

We made Christmas cookies with Grandma Wright's sour cream cut-out recipe. The girls cut them out and now we just have to frost them. Will probably do that tonight. One thing about the sour cream cut-out recipe: It makes a lot of cookies and they're good, all-around cookies. We like 'em plain or decorated. Yummy. Brought back lots of memories. And I have to give a shout-out to Michelle as well because she put me on to Reynold's quick-release foil. I used a sheet on each cookie sheet and they just slid off. I think I could even re-use the sheets numerous times, making it pretty economical in spite of the fact that the foil is a little more expensive than regular foil (you wouldn't use it for just any old left-over wrapping, that's for sure.)

We hope to decorate the tree -- it's been up for a week now without any ornaments on it. Because it's artifical and pre-lit, it's actually a breeze. I almost wouldn't mind NOT decorating it this year because of the baby. She's already demonstrated her Transformer personna as Destructor -- having taken ornaments off Grandma Downs' tree and the tree at the hair salon. We'll have to decorate half-way up. Good thing Michelle didn't have her tree up when we had our gift exchange the other day. As it is I spent most of the time chasing her around the house taking things out of her hands. I can just imagine what she'll be like with the tree all trimmed. I won't be bringing out my Santas and snowmen this year I fear because she'll be running all over the house with them. Now I can understand why the first quarter of my life was spent with a Christmas tree sitting on a table instead of on the floor. There was always a baby crawling or running around. We need the hearth gate from up at the lake down at the house this year to keep Brigid away. Maybe if we just put the heart gate around HER instead? (I can hear child protective services right now...)

The holidays otherwise are in full swing and I'm looking forward to vacation at the end of my work day on Friday. Christmas is meant to be a vacation. I should have been a professional student because it feels like you should be off between Christmas and New Year's.

BTW, Patricia's concert with the Champlain Valley Oratorio Society and Orchestra was spectacular! I was so proud of her, and the children's voices blended beautifully with the adult ones. Very pretty. And the orchestra! Holy cow, it blew us away. As good as anything we've heard anywhere professionally.