Jule-Zilla

Holy Terrible Twos. It's here. In the flesh. Meet "Jule-Zilla". As Julianna approached 2 years old a month ago, her temperament was still pretty even tempered and mellow, just like it has been her entire life so far. Everyone kept telling me and warning, "Just wait, it's coming. Terrible two's". 

I ignored the 'warning' as I often do since I KNEW my child would NEVER turn into that horrible beastly creature that we have all seen in the store or restaurant and said to ourselves, "That will never be my kid!"  {Hysterical laughing here.  You can laugh too!}

WELL. Enter Age 2. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's here. It's here with a vengeance and it's kicking ass and taking names. "IT" is Jule-Zilla. Evil spawn. Once she starts getting wound up, watch out. Her eyes start spinning and she breathes fire - and can take out small towns with her wrath! 

I blamed it on a molar coming in last week but now we don't see what we thought was a molar last week, so who knows. It still may be she has one coming in, but I can't blame the last 20 tantrums on that silly tooth. 

She can go from zero to sixty in 2 seconds. She can be calm & playing happily one minute... and the littlest thing sets her off, like for instance, me trying to put her socks on. Or the dog sticks her snoot in Julianna's cup. Or her chair is not way she likes it. Or I breathe.  

Some observations of the Terrible Two Tantrums: 

• I know the tantrums, kicking & screaming like a demon pass quickly {so far} and are often short lived. 

• Once it's over, she goes back to being her normal self and I get a "Hi Mommy" with a big smile. (Really? "Hi Mommy"??? and your smiling? When 2 minutes ago you couldn't breathe from screaming so loud and you had smoke coming out of your ears while Mommy wanted to dig a hole and hide from you?!) 

• This all will stop at some point. I have heard age 3 gets better. At least that's the rumor. 

• Luckily God made Julianna so cute and adorable that all is forgiven & forgotten the minute she smiles at me or is back to her normal self. Her smile melts me and makes all the bad go away. 

• My husband and I have gotten pretty good at ignoring the tantrums and waiting for it to end. I really focus on "my special calm place" when she is melting down. My husband says Julianna feels my anxiety and it makes it worse. Who knows. If you go near her, she screams louder and flails harder. So we back off, and wait it out. It ends. It's part of being a toddler & I totally get it. It's going to happen and you can't prevent it. 

• We can tell when a tantrum is about to break loose. Right before IT happens, Julianna gives off signals like a quick growl and flail of the arms at you. Or a screech and turns away and whines to herself. Or this noise that sounds like something erupting from a volcano - and her top is about to blow. Yup. Those are the telltale signs. We step away abruptly from the child and lt her calm down, until the happy comes back to her.   

• When she is melting down, I want to run far away screaming and never look back. 

• When Julianna has an extra long tantrum, I can't help but ask myself "Why did I want kids????" but DON'T tell me that you don't say the same thing! Come on- for that split second in time, you question why you did this! But then the minute the rationale comes back to your thinking, you go back to loving this little thing that is making your hair stand up. It's called being a parent. 

• Being a parent is not all golden memories, rainbows & unicorns. You take the few bad times with the incredible happy times, and it is still the best thing my husband and I ever decided to do. We both love being parents and wouldn't trade it for anything. Not even a million bucks.

• The worst part of tantrums is when they don't happen at home or somewhere loud where no one else notices (like in a park full of kids). For instance last week when I posted HERE about Julianna melting down in Shoprite as I continued to shop like nothing was wrong, with this screaming thing in my cart. Them's the breaks. But, if it happens when we are out to dinner, which happened once so far, either myself or Brian will bring her outside until she calms down, which usually happens fast. Then we go back in, and everything is back to normal. 

• Jule-Zilla is much louder and her claws come out much much faster when she is hungry or tired - of course. So if its nap time, close to bedtime or food time... and she gets pissed. LOOK OUT. Jule-zilla comes out in super rare form. As in 'Fire breathing dragon' rare. 

• Sometimes, even though you get the signs a tantrum is coming, there is nothing you can do. You have to just roll with it. 

"Nooooo... I don't want to wear my swimmies, Daddy!!"

It does get to me sometimes - I feel like I'm on the edge and it's hard to not let it affect me. Most times I can ignore it and move on. Well - This past Sunday, I was in Kohls, and I Julianna did NOT want to be in the Kohls cart (Normally she loves that cart!). She was screaming to get out. Fine, I got her out. Then she's pushing the cart into the old lady with the cane, then into the rack of clothes, then running over my foot. Ugh! Then climbing up the side of cart to get back in almost breaking a leg in the process - screaming b/c she is stuck but then screaming when I try to help her. Oh man. Then she is whining the whole time, fake crying, trying to get in and out of the cart. Kill me now.

All I want is a few minutes to look for a pair of shorts. Please just give me 5 minutes without Jule-zilla?! Nope. AND as if I am not having enough anxiety already, I had 2 bitchy 20 year olds making snotty bitchy comments about my whiny child. I had to hold back with every ounce of energy from not telling them off in the middle of the store and punching them both out. So instead, I went in the Kohls dressing room and cried in the corner... It's official, my child had defeated me. Maybe I am going nuts? No, maybe just Mommy meltdown. I guess we have to be allowed too. It does take it's toll some days. 

The upside.
I could stare forever at her peaceful little beautiful face while she sleeps. 

All is forgiven & forgotten at that point. I love this girl more than life itself, even though she is the evil spawn.  All of you moms get it, right?? Been there done that? 

Happy July 4th & Have a great day!