Holymotherofgod tantrums

William will turn 4 years old in two months.  He's at the tail end of his 3's but he's just now begun tantrums.  Like TAN TRUMS.  He's always been emotional, I've blogged about that many times.  I think because he's capable in so many other ways, he gets really frustrated and pissed when he's limited in others.  It's like when your brain knows how to do something and your body just can't follow through with that.  Something isn't in sync and that's when emotions take over.  Also, he's lazy and doesn't like to clean up if he isn't in a helping mood. 

This last week and a half has been intense.  Our days have gone like this:  wake, normal, normal, normal, holymotherofgod TANTRUM, normal, normal, normal, whinecryfuss, normal, normal, bedtime.  There is no connection to sleep, hunger, time of day, etc.  I'm sure there are lots of things that create an environment for a tantrum but honestly I'm too busy and he's too old for me to sit and dissect every considerable factor.  He knows if he's tired or hungry.  And I can certainly tell if he's tired or hungry.  These tantrums come out of the blue that the frist one actually scared me.  The topic or catalyst is always something so seemingly minor, too, it's almost laughable when he goes into full breakdown mode.  I'm thinking, "Really?  Because Lauren ran by and snatched your sunglasses you're doing this?  Really?"  That's the inner mommy.  The outer mommy is saying, "Go ask for them back and tell her they do not belong to her, they are yours."  He usually doesn't hear that part, though, given the psycho screaming that's taken over.

This morning was the longest tantrum yet.  It lasted 45 minutes exactly.  I did secretly get some video, just to show his wife what a spaz he used to be, but I won't post it.  He literally hopped up and down, cried, screamed, shouted demands at the three of us girls, and hooted for 45 minutes.  I went up after about 25 minutes and told him he could either pick up the checkers as I'd asked and stop crying, or go back to bed.  I was calm and it pissed him off.  He went on for another 5 minutes before I stood at the top of the stairs and repeated his two options and to make a decision now.  He decided to pick up and stop crying.  It took him 10 minutes to pick up 20 checkers but whatever.  

It's so hard because I wanted to scream how ridiculous he was being and how noisy he was and how bothersome the constant stomping was but I let him have his tantrum and paid him no attention (we were downstairs, he was upstairs).  He had to apologize when he came down after he showed me he cleaned up.  I said, "That was such a waste of time, don't you think?  We've already eaten breakfast and watched some Curious George.  I hope next time you make a better choice much sooner."  What I wanted to say was, 

for reals.