It had to happen.
One can only go on so much activity and so much excitement with so little sleep for so long. Eventually, you just can’t take it anymore:
She made it to the corner at the end of the street on the way home with BW in the car. Thankfully, she’s still small enough I can carry her so I brought her to bed but she didn’t want to stay there for long and down she came for dinner.
It’s day 2 of summer camp here, and we were expecting this level of exhaustion so we had dinner ready and waiting (it was spaghetti, don’t get excited) so she could eat, have a bath and go to bed.
It’s been a full day of tired here. We warned her. We told her she would be so tired after having so much fun chasing spiders (update: the spider isn’t in the tree anymore) and today was fishing and swimming. She just needs to go to bed and catch up on some sleep.
This morning was probably a cue to how the day would go:
Once again I woke to an overexcited and under slept child
“Hey, Dad, it’s 6:02”
I tried to convince her that we have more time to sleep but I had no real need to get up 2 hours before camp so I protested a bit and told her to just hop in and lie down. Well… we all know how that ended up:
She wanted me UP. NOW!
My body was having other ideas about this and was disputing the demands of a six-year-old wanting it to wake up.
Well, that was it - the fact that I did not instantly get up thisthrew my little over-played and under-slept friend in a tantrum faster than you can say the word.
There was screaming and flailing and kicking which ended with BW getting kicked in the head as her wake up call. (good morning, BW) . Accidental, but not a nice way to get up.
By this time she was full on meltdown and no words could fix this so I grabbed her and started to take her to her bedroom where she can cool the f down. When we got to the hallway she woke up from her screamfest and realized that she was on the move and asked “where are we going, daddy?”.
“You’ll find out” I thought to myself.
I put her down on her bed, and then told her not to come down until the mood approves.
Also, Dad needs coffee. Lots of coffee.
There seems to be a few phases of the tantrums:
First there’s the slight whining and resistance - maybe some wiggling and kicking. Then we go to full on screaming. This is usually where we part ways until she cools it. Up next comes the demands and (more screaming) arguments about why she should have/not have whatever the protest is about. Then finally the sign of defeat: the ask for a Huggie.
Huggies are always free here. You’re just not getting one until you cool your jets a bit.
The rest of the morning we had breakfast and it’s like the 20 minute meltdown didn’t happen and I dropped her off on day 2 of camp where she was off making new friends before I could get back to the car.
She came home in the status you see above.
Dinner was uneventful and so was the bath - until the hair washing started to happen. She’s so stubborn sometimes: All we wanted to do was get her hair shampooed so she didn’t look unwashed and sandy and stinky and gross.
Cue more protests, and splashing and overall just being a little …well, you get the idea.
So BW did exactly what I would do: She dumped a container of water on her head for the rinse.. She was going to get rinsed one way or another and we offered her the easy way multiple times, but she didn’t want to - so we choose our way: the hard way.
I now can tell you about tantrum 2. It’s pretty much a repeat of this morning: She didn’t want to do (enter thing here) and she didn’t like the result (sent to her room)
Cue the screaming. (again)
Finally, her poor little body couldn’t take it and once the noise stopped I cautiously entered her room to check on her and found her with her book and under the covers. I got her into her PJ’s, and except for a trip downstairs for an ice pack that’s been the last of her for today.
I sure hope she gets used to the rigors of this camp thing and the mood improves. She’s a completely different person with 12 hours of sleep in her and It’s the version I recommend.
Tomorrow, it’s a field trip to the bowling alley including pizza and soda!
Hopefully she’ll sleep in until at least 6:03 am.
Until next time,
TH and Co.