tantrums for the week

This week has been full of tantrums from Elie. I suppose this is life with a two-and-a-half year old. Here's a list:

1. "I want you to get the flower blankie down here"--currently being whined in an infinite loop.

This is because Elie is at the entrance of our house. She says she is cold. She doesn't want to come upstairs. Instead, she wants me to bring her blankie downstairs to her. This is after I told her that she needed to come upstairs.

She has been repeating herself for the past 15 minutes.

Oh, now she's repeating, "I'm cold."

Keep in mind, there is nothing fun about the entrance to our house. It is a small area--where we have a bench to hold our shoes. That's pretty much it. Why she wants to stay there is unknown to me.

2.  "I want you to get it"--also whined in an infinite loop, in the car, yesterday morning.

This was because she said she was cold and wanted a blanket. The blanket was next to her car seat--within easy reaching distance. I told her that she had to get it herself. She said, "NO. I want you to get it." Which of course made me even more insistent that she get it herself.

We might be too stubborn for each other.

3. "Open the door"--also whined in an infinite loop, in her room.

This happened on two different days. Both times after her nap. The first time, she kept asking me to open the door--and then she would shut it in my face after I opened it. After multiple times of opening her door, I finally put a little stopper on it so that she couldn't shut it. That just pissed her off.

The second time, I had left the door open, because I wanted to wake her up. But she didn't get up. After 15 minutes, she finally woke up--and started whining "Open the door." It was wide open.

4. "I don't want to take a siesta"--whined at the top of her voice in the hallway. Thankfully she didn't wake up her sister.

While she's whining that she doesn't want to take a nap, Elie proceeds to take off her clothes (she likes to sleep naked). Then she gets a pillow and a blanket--whining the whole time--and falls asleep in the hallway.

***

My patience for these tantrums is very short. I mostly ignore her--which means she just keeps whining. She is very persistent. She sometimes throws tantrums for 45 minutes.

Eventually she calms down and is happy and fun. But it takes a long time. And then you never know when the tantrum monster will strike again.

Oy. When do they learn to have better control over their emotions? When are they a bit more rational?