Meltdown

Today e and I walked around her neighborhood during a period when the rain had stopped.  It was good until she wanted to pick flowers from someone else's yard, and I wouldn't let her.  We kept going and finally got back to the house but there were tears and frustration on her part.  Even picking a very green lemon from the tree in her yard didn't help much.  My goal for the morning was to shop for groceries.  Eventually she agreed to help me do that, so we drove to Safeway.  Everything was fine till we were nearing the end.  I wanted to get some flowers for Randy since I'll be at the Women's Retreat this weekend.  I offered to let e choose some but she apparently didn't see any she liked.  Admittedly I might have rushed her a bit, but I chose tulips, and she took offense.  And being a two-year-old, this took the form of screaming and crying all through the checkout process and out into the rain.

I loaded the groceries into the car, but e wanted nothing to do with me, pushing me away as she said, "Go away, Grandma Starr," with the rain pouring down on us.  I'm not sure how long we stood there before I was able to pick her up and put her in the car, though I couldn't get her buckled into her seat. I sat in the seat beside her for a while as the windows steamed up and she continued to scream.  I called E who suggested telling her to take deep breaths and hold on tight to Bear, and I held the phone so e could hear her mom say that.  We drew a sad face on the window, and eventually she allowed me to buckle her in and drive to our house.

When Randy took her out of the car she seemed just fine.  After lunch and a video she went to bed and slept for 2 1/2 hours.  I don't know if she was tired, or feeling unsure about the baby due next week, or just testing me.  But I was tired to start with, and this episode didn't help.  I'm looking forward to my maternity leave!