Excuses, excuses

My day with Annie yesterday was a bit trying for both us. Especially when we're just hanging out around the house, Annie is becoming more and more prone to tantrums and major frustrations. Thankfully, when we're out and about she's usually distracted enough to be happy and more easy going, but at home? All bets are off. Sometimes Ben and I find ourselves trying to make excuses for her behavior - "oh, she didn't get 13 hours of sleep last night so she's probably just cranky" or the ever popular "well, she's teething" (you know, from now until 3 years old). Then we just try to STOP doing that and realize that sometimes she's just going to be a hot mess for no reason whatsoever, and that's her prerogative :)

I actually find most of her tantrums kind of hilarious, so I wanted to record a few of them here for my own memory. I usually can laugh about it even while it's happening. I know that as trivial as it seems to ME, whatever Annie is upset about is a big deal TO HER, so I try not to say things like "it's ok, you're fine, get over it, you're being silly" and just say things like "You're quite upset that I'm trying to help you eat so I'll let you do it yourself". It's a hard impulse to fight, because I KNOW that she IS fine, but it'll take her awhile to figure that out for herself. I also am not going to totally act like whatever happened to her is the end of the world, but just tell it like it is so hopefully we can both move on with our lives :)

Last Sunday, before I left for Dallas, we were enjoying the morning on the porch. As you can see in the photo above, we gave Annie half a banana on a plate. Why we gave her the plate, I now have no idea. Obviously she didn't have a very good grip on it, so when she was using both hands to eat her banana, the plate would fall off. Thinking I would help her out a bit (I'm sure you all see where this is going) I took the plate away from her. Oh my good lord, you'd have thought I ripped away her most treasured possession. She wasn't even distracted by the fact that she was eating a banana, her most favorite of all foods, oh no. Waterworks and screaming immediately started. I'm pretty sure there was some flailing to the ground involved. Since we were on the porch and thus in hearing range of, oh, the entire STREET, Ben scooped her up and sat her on his lap with the PLATE AND BANANA. AKA, what she wanted. It took her a few minutes to stop her dramatics, and through her tears she started eating the banana again. Ben tried to hold the plate for her, and she (while eating the banana with one hand) took her hand and pushed off his hand finger by finger, no matter where he put it. Oh wow. You can see her big girl tears in the below photo.

What is THIS? A photo of us where we are BOTH LOOKING AND SMILING? (well, hers looks like a grimace, but whatever)

I know this happens LONG ago for many kiddos, but up until about a week ago, Annie would still tolerate being spoon fed sometimes. She liked trying to do it herself, but she was fine if we helped her. Um, not so much anymore. If I even attempt to TOUCH the spoon, she grips it with all of her strength while shooting me a death glare. If I succeed in getting it away from her, screams and tears. Ben gave her some black bean soup while I was gone, and she apparently did this to him as well. Not only did she want to do it HERSELF, she wouldn't even let him touch the bowl. Apparently she managed it pretty well, except for getting it all over herself in the process. We'd only tried "sticky" liquidy stuff up until this point, like greek yogurt which is thick and at least sticks to the spoon. Soup is just a wee bit more messy!

This is apparently how she spent the rest of the night.

I don't even actually remember any specific tantrums from yesterday, other than the typical diaper change fiascos (it's as if the WORLD is ENDING, people! WHEN will she just get used to it??) and major meltdowns in the car randomly. We did have a fun trip to the park, lunch out with Grandma and dinner at Becca and Joe's house so the day was actually overall really fun. I'll focus on that :) Also I can focus on all the new words she's saying and her increased walking! Still not a "walker" yet but she's getting there and it's so cute :)

She shoveled sand into a bucket for probably 20 minutes


Downtown St. Paul for lunch at Key's


Yup, Annie still fits in a bumbo :) Ha! She's much happier in it now than she ever was as a wee baby.


Annie loves the guacamole samples when we go to Whole Foods, so I let her have a few chips and practice her dipping skillz. Not surprisingly, she was a big fan but also a disgusting double (triple, quadruple, until the chip was soggy) dipper


Drinking from a water jug that probably weighs more than she does. Would have finished it off if we let her.


We had grilled pork chops for dinner - I cut Annie tiny pieces (even got her to say "please"! (peeeeees) but she was getting annoyed by my slowness, so I just gave her a whole piece to gnaw on. She was thrilled.

And just a few pretties of springtime in Minnesota! THIS is why we still live here, people. That and the fact that all of our family and friends are here too. Minor detail.