I think we are going to enroll Alex in a soccer program this summer. We think he will love it and it’s 50 minutes of running and wearing him out on a Saturday morning. The program starts in mid-June and we’ve been getting him ready and also seeing if we think he will like it. He clearly will – loves kicking the soccer ball, wearing the shin guards, and even has soccer goals at home and soccer shorts that he just has to wear.
This past weekend we went to a park with a big turf field for playing soccer and baseball. It has large goals and there was even a game going on in the next field over. We had so much fun. We would run down to one goal and run back kicking the ball the whole way. Alex would say to us “I’m going to beat you” and we would run and giggle. His little legs would run so fast! At the other end he would declare “I beated-ed you!”
It was so much fun we went on Sunday, too. There was a baseball game going on so they had the goals off to the side, but still plenty of room to play around. We kicked the ball quite a bit, to each other and in the goal. Alex would kick the ball in the goal sometimes and other times be the goalie, and he got what this meant.
He fell down once and was checking if there was a boo-boo or not, was there blood? No, just a scratch. We got up and played some more.
Then, the meltdown. MELTDOWN! The ball got kicked into the baseball field and Lance had to run and get it. Alex got very mad that he didn’t beat Daddy to the ball and just melted into a puddle after that. I mean a big 3 year old overwhelmed with all emotions puddle. He was kicking and screaming. I tried to hold him down and say that hitting wasn’t acceptable, but there was no listening. He was hysterical. We had to call it a day and carry a hysterical toddler out of the park. Lance was mortified and I felt bad for him as he was the one who had to carry this kicking, screaming kid out of the park. What Lance doesn’t realize is that 99% of the people in that park had probably experienced what we were going through and unless it’s your kid, probably weren’t paying any attention at all.
He finally calmed down a bit in the car ride home, saying that he did have his “listening ears” on now and wanted to go back to the park. He would share the soccer ball now, can we go back? All the while – it’s that sobbing sound when someone has been crying so hard that they gulp for air. Poor kiddo. We told him that next time we go we can share and play, but now we were going home. He tried everything he could to get us to go back, but we weren’t biting.
We’ll go back again this next weekend and hope for more fun and less tantrums.
I think we’re in a new stage with the temper tantrums – they are BIG and he is totally overwhelmed and totally irrational. The other day he had a big tantrum at home and was hitting me. I finally pinned him down and basically sat on him while holding his hands down. I kept telling him that hitting wasn’t acceptable behavior. I let him up after a few minutes, but he went back to hitting right away. Tackled him again and went through the whole thing again. This time he tried spitting on me – I was shocked. But, I tried not to laugh, too since he was just spitting on himself. Finally I would ask him if he was ready for a hug and the first few times he said no, but then finally said yes. I had to let him up and give him a big hug as if nothing happened, that was hard. But, that is what I did. Gave him a big hug and told him that I love him. I’ve learned from these situations that I need to be better at setting the limit and quicker to implement the punishment. Hitting Mama is not acceptable and there will be no warnings from now on. I had been giving him too many warnings before.
The meltdown stage.
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