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Alyssa was a difficult toddler. I had always worried about the "terrible two's" because most people remember it as the tantrum age. I used to tell people that for Alyssa, it wasn't the "terrible two's", it was "the terrible two YEARS"!!!
Alyssa lived in her own world when she was two and three years old. Two good examples of what I mean are crayons and buttons. I remember being really excited at introducing Alyssa to her first box of crayons. I made sure to buy the big chunky ones that are easier for toddlers to hold on to. She was just thrilled with this box of crayons and so I took them out of the box and opened up the coloring book (I beleive it was Mickey & Minnie). I showed her how to put the crayon on the paper and color the picture. To my amazement, she picked up a crayon and started picking at the paper covering the crayon. I tried to tell her not to peel the crayons because if she did, she wouldn't know what color the crayon was (blue, black, & purple look alike without the paper). When I tried to stop her from peeling the crayons, she went into a terrible tantrum. She kicked and screamed and wrapped her little fist so tight around the crayon that her knuckles were turning white. Because this was unacceptable behavior, I picked her up and put her in a chair for time out. The only way for this to have an effect was to make her stay in the chair and count to ten (all the while she is still screaming). I hoped that with time she would learn to be quiet in time out but that still hasn't happened. None the less, Alyssa returned to her new crayons and proceded to peel all the paper off the crayons. She must have sat there for an hour or more. She was so focused and determined to get the paper off the crayons. I realized there was more harm in telling her not to than there was in letting her. Besides, it dawned on me that this was good therapy for her fine motor skills which were poor, and it was voluntary! Then, this led to the button thing which was basicly the same concept. I bought her this little vest that had three buttons on it and she would stand in her room for hours buttoning and unbuttoning the vest. She would get so engrossed that she wouldn't even hear me talking to her. Or, if I needed her to stop because I had to leave, or it was time for dinner, or really for any reason, the tantrum would start again. There were times when her tantrums lasted for hours. I started putting her in her room when they got really bad. Mostly because I needed a time out! She would just destroy her room. She kicked the walls, threw her stuff around, screamed, cried, and tried kicking in the door. She was so hell bent on freaking out that she never once tried to open the door using the door knob which would have let her out of the room. I don't think a day went by when Alyssa didn't have a severe tantrum. OK, accept for when she had a seizure. She was so quiet and loving when she went through those. She was just probably so drained there was no energy left to fight. P.S. Alyssa still peels her crayons to this day!!!!!!
