Tantrum

I did my morning walk this morning w/ my friend Jo and her son and Fuss, of course. Then Jo suggested that we let the kids play on the playground when we were done. They had a grand ol' time and that early, they had it all to themselves. They went up the stairs and down the slides over and over to their little hearts content. (Fuss especially loves slides. She gets the cutest smile on her face as she whizzes down the slippery plastic)

They played nicely together and we were getting ready to leave when a couple of older girls (I'd guess in the 4-6 range) came. We had no problem with them being there, of course, but they were significantly bigger, of course and it made us even more sure it was time to go, since they weren't great about waiting for our little ones to go down the slides before going down themselves. (Their mother did tell them they needed to wait and gave them a proper gentle lecture when they didn't. Again, we were not upset by their presence and their mother was properly supervising).

We told our kids it was time to go and began moving in the way of the cars. We let them go down one more little slide on the smaller play gym and then herded them to the parking lot. When Fuss attempted to climb on the large plastic bouncy dinosaur, I told her no, that it was time to go, and took her hand more firmly to guide her. Direct to meltdown mode. She fell to the ground and cried and cried and screamed and cried. I picked her up and she kicked and screamed and cried some more. I wrestled her all the way to the van and had to give her a little swat to get her to sit in the carseat. (Which of course, caused her to cry even more, though she sat where I put her and let me get the straps on her instead of melting and squirming so much I couldn't get her belted in.)

She cried the rest of the way through the park as we drove out. She continued to cry and scream all the way home. I offered her a stuffed animal (I had left Maddie the Monkey at home) which she rejected and then asked for, rejected and then asked for. I offered her juice, which she rejected. She continued to cry (though it was starting to ease off) as we went into the house and found Maddie. She sat on the living room floor moaning/crying with Maddie in her mouth for 10 more minutes.

I know what set her off - she often throws tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. But I have no idea why it kept going on and on.

Shortly after she settled down, she fell asleep on the floor, hours before her usual nap time. I even changed her diaper without waking her. I put her in her crib and she stirred (of course!) and I talked to her for a few minutes - do you want to sleep or come with mommy while I take a shower? She got up and came with me and played nicely the entire time.

It's nearing naptime, finally. She just finished lunch and I'm trying to figure out when to put her down for her actual nap (total sleep time earlier was about 10 minutes, so a real nap is required.)

I know I just wrote a really long post about 1 tantrum, but she never does this. And I was baffled.