Eli: Tantrums?

Temper tantrum: "a loss of mental balance or composure, esp. by an outburst of anger or irritation; also called tantrum." Yup, that sounds like Eli.

Eli has always complained if we took a dangerous toy away from him or took him away from something forbidden. But there's a certain "bite" to his complaining now, a certain tone that is on the verge of whining. Couple that with the flapping of arms, sometimes escalating into a full blown cry, and we got ourselves a 1-year old's tantrum.

When we take him away from something, he used to just kick his legs in a "I'm active" kind of way, not really a tantrum. But sometimes now he'll also go limp when we pick him up, putting his arms straight up making it harder to get a good grip on him. All he has to do is arch his back and he'll have the tantrum thing perfected. The other day I think he fell over and just lay on his back looking around. I just left him there, imagining that in a few months, that will be him flailing on the ground.

Even June noticed it today. Eli crawled into the toy drawer and got stuck. She said he whined, not just yelping for help, he was actually whining. She always calls him "funny", perhaps because she's seen him grow from infancy week by week at the church nursery and can see him experimenting or trying out behaviors to understand more of the world. Only, when you're the parent, it ain't so funny.