Drama Queen (hmm, where does she get that from, I have NO IDEA)

Gwen is starting to get a bit of a temper. It leaves me a bit worried, knowing that things like this are just around the corner. Currently, she's at a really good in-between age: old enough to be interested in what's going on around her, but young enough that she's not desperate to assert her independence. I've taken her grocery shopping with me a few times, plunking her into the childseat in the front of the cart, and she loves it. She loves all the bright colours, all the smiling people. Again, perfect age: old enough to sit in the shopping cart, young enough not to scream that SHE WANTS THE CANDY.

But there have been a few incidents, in the safety and privacy of our own home thank goodness, that let us know what's coming. For example, a few days ago I placed a peeled banana on her high chair tray with the intention of mashing it. She picked it up before I could, and started shoving the whole thing down her throat. When I gently removed it from her esophagus to make it less chokable, she screamed at me. Not her usual whiny-moany-fussy cry, this was a full-on squawk of "I WAS EATING THAT DAMMIT, YOU NEVER LET ME DO ANYTHING!!!" Keep in mind I moved the banana about an inch away returned it about two seconds later. This was the equivalent of the End of the World as far as Gwen was concerned. I have no doubt that if she had not been in the high chair, she would have flung herself bonelessly to the ground, shrieking about the injustice of it all.

It must be really hard to be this age. So much has been said about the learning abilities and intelligence of toddlers, and yet their communication skills are so limited. No wonder toddlers are famous for their tantrums. Still, unless we're going to barricade the door and keep her out of the public eye from her first birthday until her eighteenth, I guess we'd better figure out how to deal with that temper - before it rears its ugly head at the most inopportune moment.