untie me!

i've heard stories all my life about my famous tantrums as a kid. my parents love to remember when i was three and threw a huge fit because my mom was at the hospital after having given birth to my brother and i took a nap and by the time i woke up visiting hours at the hospital were over and we couldn't go see her. or how i would scream because i had to "BUCKLE MY OWN SHOES!!!", or i'd throw a fit in walgreens and my mother would have to walk away while i kicked and screamed and writhed on the floor. it wasn't pretty. sometimes i would get so upset that they would have to put me in my room in the apartment house we lives in. unfortunately, it was an old house and there was no way to keep me in there, no locks on the door. so they would tie a rope around the door knob and tie it to the radiator just outside the room in the hallway. i would get the door open about two inches and push my little face into the opening and scream ( a la jack nicholson, "the shining"): "UNTIE ME!!! UNTIE ME!!!!" really, it wasn't pretty. and it's amazing no one else in the nearby apartments didn't call children and family services on the parents who tied their poor child up.

i tell you this because it would seem that i'm definitely getting a taste of my own medicine 20+ years later. andie is quite the fit-thrower. she's a screamer, she has been known to throw herself down kicking and screaming, she makes insane demands, usually for candy and sweets and when rebuffed unleashes all her pent up three-year-old angst. her screaming usually includes either the phrase, "DON'T SAY THAT TO ME!" or "YOU'RE NOT MY BEST FRIEND!" but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

i have always said that the so-called "terrible two's" are nothing, it's three you should worry about and we're there now. sigh. maybe she'll get it all out of her system before #3 arrives. it's doubtful but i need to think positively right? and while i'm dreaming, maybe she'll be one of those perfect teenagers too who makes all the right decisions, consults her parents before doing anything crazy, decides not to jump off that bridge because all her friends are doing it. .........maybe.....

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