Friday, January 04, 2008

Anatomy of a Tantrum

Last night, Katie had a sleepover.

One of the cardinal rules for 4-year-old girl sleepovers is that you must, ahead of time, remove any objects that you think may cause disagreements. This rule is especially true in the weeks following Christmas when everything is "new" and "special."

Oh, the joys of daughters.

So, after a relatively successful sleepover with little disagreements (the girls went straight to sleep after a story on the giant air mattress that I'd blown up for them and I didn't hear a peep for the next ELEVEN hours), it is customary that we gussy ourselves up. This means bathing, which is necessary after consuming the amounts of ice cream and caramel corn that these two did.

And, in customary 4-year-old girl fashion, this often means a bath - not to be confused with a shower, which is the common practice we employ on non-sleepover-with-the-cousin days.

I warned them before I plopped them in the bath that there would be no fighting over the Dora bath doll, or the rubber duckies, or the boats or the washcloths.

They took turns famously and without a single raised eyebrow or sly look in the other's direction.

And then it was time to get out.

I wrapped my niece up in a giant beach towel with fish all over it.

And the screams began.

"Noooooo, Lily can't use that towel," she wailed.

"Excuse me?" I questioned, as perplexed as ever.

"I want the fishy towel."

"Well, Lily is using the fishy towel, you can use another. It's just a towel, you'll be fine." I said as I walked my niece into Katie's bedroom and helped her with her clothes.

When I came back into the bathroom, I was greeted with the sight of my darling daughter laying in the bottom of the empty tub.

Much screaming was coming from her angered lips.

"I can't have a normal towel! I can't have a normal towel! I can't have a normal towel!"

I guess next time, we'll have to use beige, boring towels and hide the fishy ones.

Who knew?

14 comments:

flutter said...

the hell you say.

Seattle Mamacita said...

the drama at this age and who can predict it...my son freaked out because his cousin had the "lightning mcqueen fork" at dinner the other day!

Cathy, Amy and Kristina said...

I'm always amazed by the seemingly innocent triggers....!

Kellan said...

You are living my life girl!!! I have had this very same exact thing happen - bath with a cousin - towel fight - and all!!!! My niece is often at our house and you just never know how many hours will go by without a fight and then how many hours will go by with 100 hundred fights - it's always a mystery - it's always fun. Have a great weekend. Kellan

painted maypole said...

ahhh... we had 3 child vistors (plus their parents) last weekend, and we had a few of those moments ourselves. sigh.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha!!! Why are these stories so cute to me? Oh right, I haven't experienced them yet. :/ My son occasionally gets worked up when someone uses his sister's "scary" cup, I wonder what it will be like when she returns and wants to use it herself... yikes.

Family Adventure said...

LOL! You make preparations ad nauseum, and it's the one little thing you didn't think of that causes the meltdown. Typical!

Heidi

Anonymous said...

This is really spectacular post . I like the way you are writing the posts ...
The word fashion the the integral part of the youngsters and yes , this is really affecting the youth !

Kristin said...

f*cking non-fish towels... they ruin everything!

Girlplustwo said...

they are insane. all of them.

LindaJ said...

fishy towel, who knew. I can't say that I blame her, I wouldn't want to use a boring old normal towel.

The drama of it all.....

Queen of the Mayhem said...

There is NO limit to the depths of turmoil the most simple of things can cause!

I wholeheartedly agree....next time....EVERYBODY gets a beige towel!

Lesson learned! :)

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Amazing, isn't it? They HAVE to be the special ones... Which just makes you say "nuh-UH stinker! You are SO not getting the so-called special item!" which always goes over so well with the under 5 crowd...

Ann(ie) said...

See...I haven't been a mom long enough. That would have never ever occured to me. I learn stuff from reading these blogs!