Not No, but HELL NO!

My sweet baby, my adorable child has left the premises and been replaced with a tantrum throwing, NO! screaming brat!

Overnight, last night to be exact, he changed.  For the first time today he told me NO! With defiance in his eyes, and I swear if he could stand up on his own he would have stomped a foot for dramatic effect. It all started with a hat.  The hat in this picture to be exact. 

We went to the zoo, it was hot and sunny.  I made him wear the hat.  It's a lovely hat, but he hates all hats.....which would be fine if his skin wasn't translucent white, but this white boy must wear a hat at all times outside.  He took it off, I put it on, he took it off, I began to see the pattern and quickly did the teacher thing.  I got down on his level, told him in a firm (yet loving!) voice. "The sun is out, it will burn your skin without a hat, you must wear the hat". I put it back on his head, he looked at me angrily, yanked the hat off and yelled NO! And then he waited to see what I would do.  In my head I knew this was the moment my baby was gone.  He has now figured out the meaning, and power of the word NO! and there will be no more baby for me.  It was also the defining moment that I would make or break how he responded to future discipline.

I responded with "your choice is to wear the hat and see the animals, or not wear the hat and go home".  I then put the hat on him again, he threw it again and I said. "It looks like you're choosing to go home".  So we left (luckily we have passes and that's easy to do - not so easy at an expensive place), and I listened to a crying child wail "See yitto yams, see yitto yams!" (See little lambs!) all the way out.

As we head to the car the Mommy in me says Hey, now we can do the grocery shopping!, the teacher on the other shoulder says....don't push it, bad idea!  The Wal-Mart across the street and the mommy win!

Everything went well until Erik realized there is no tank with crabs and lobsters at Wal-Mart (we don't have many Wal-Marts here so most of our grocery stores DO have fish tanks) and he LOST it.  Yelling "Tabs Tabs!! and signing Crabs as fast as his little fingers could.

What could I do?  Seriously he was SCREAMING his head off.  I tried singing, I tried goldfish, cheese sticks, apple juice...everything in my cart was open and he was having none of it.  I was the lady in the store with the screaming child.  And I just had to let him scream. It was hell, toddler hell - I have now stepped into it's doors.

Yesterday he didn't have any tantrums, today he had 4. I will embrace the learning that is toddler hood, ignore the tantrums, and shop alone with all the other toddler mothers at nap time, and late night.