Moving to Seattle: Haven't grown out of the tantrums yet

Genna was excited to return to school after missing it for a couple days last week to due to the stomach flu. This was good for me because she got herself ready for school early and quickly this morning. She's also insisting on making breakfast entirely herself. From getting the cereal boxes out to pouring the milk. This is really nice for me, except that she'll probably only be eating cereal for the next month since that's really the only breakfast that she can make entirely by herself. Fortunately, she's okay with everyone else having eggs, pancakes or French toast while she eats her Cheerios and milk.

I really had nothing on the agenda this morning, but since the sun was peeking out every once in a while and it was relatively warm, I thought it would be nice to let Jonah run around at a playground this morning. So, I took him to Meridian playground. They have a nice wooden play structure that is the perfect size for Jonah. I worry about him falling off some of the bigger play structures, but the one at Meridian is safe enough that he'll be okay if he falls off and lands in the mulch (which he has done). He likes it too since I don't hoover around him as much.

There were some people walking their dogs near the playground, so after getting out of the van, Jonah wanted to check out the dogs. Apparently he wore himself out chasing after the dogs because he wanted to go back to the van for a snack instead of playing at the playground. This was fine with me because I really needed to buy some slippers. One of my slippers disappeared. How could I lose one slipper in the house? Not sure if it was Genna or Jonah, but I'm positive that one of them had something to do with my missing slipper. So, I packed Jonah up in the van, gave him a snack and he was a happy camper. When we arrived at the mall, I headed for Macy's slipper department. Slippers are part of "hosiery." I did not know this until today.

After looking at a few slippers, something upset Jonah. I'm not exactly sure what it was; perhaps he got mad because I wouldn't let him play with the trashcan in the hosiery department. Thus, temper tantrum. This time, very loud screaming. He screamed through the hosiery department. The screaming continued through Nordstroms. Then I walked down the mall a bit. I never realized the acoustics of a mall before, but a piercing scream will echo throughout the long hall of a mall, especially on a Monday morning with just a few shoppers and a couple dozen senior citizens doing their mall walking.

Jonah's screaming continued back through Macy's and during the short car ride to TJ Max. I thought getting outside and going to a different store would distract Jonah enough to stop screaming, but it did not. He wanted to show me how persistent he could be. So, at the slipper department at TJ Max, I just set Jonah down on the floor and let him kick and scream while I tried on several different slippers. A couple of women walked up to Jonah and tried to ask him what was wrong (as if Jonah can actually carry on a conversation, let alone articulate the complex sequence of events and frustrations that led him to this severe emotional state). Since I'm now at the point where I let Jonah have his tantrum and I don't care what other people think, it was actually one of my easier shopping experiences with Jonah. Normally, I have to chase him all over the store, but today, I could leisurely try on several different pairs of slippers. Jonah stayed in one spot on the floor kicking & screaming; I could even walk away from him a bit and didn't have to worry about losing him because I could always hear him.

Jonah eventually snapped out of it when I was able to distract him enough with some kitchen gadgets and then the toy section. It's possible that tiredness could be one of the triggers of his temper tantrums because in the kids section, Jonah found himself a pillow, put his head on it and started sucking his thumb. I suppose it's also possible that screaming for an hour could make the boy tired and that was the reason he thought it best to take a little nap after the episode. In any case, I found a great pair of slippers. Hopefully the kids won't hide these on me too.