Tantrums 101

Had promised a video of combo #1 earlier..(a special tantrum thrown by baby at random).

This is not that video. This is combo #2.

Let me explain.

The little one did not cooperate with Mommy during her nail cutting attempts.

She(the little one), was smart enough to follow mommy, find out the secret hiding place where the nailclipper was kept, and got them, just as mommy went on to do other things over a busy weekend.

Feeling something along the lines of the crow that stole the Vadai from the old grandma (TOYWAP, this is from the Tamizh equivalent to Aesop's fables!), she was perched on the couch attempting to cut her own knees, fingers, feet or anything that was close enough to her nails, when she spotted "Secret Video Daddy"!

SVD, feeling the same thing a National geographic photographer feels when he is about to videotape a poor Gazelle just when it is being ambushed by a lioness, was in two minds. Do I continue the video? or do I stop and go pull those clippers out of her hands before she injures herself! SVD decided to do both, at the cost of the video not being secret anymore and the possibility of incurring mommy's wrath on being irresponsible and proving it to the world on video! He kept rolling the tape and tried to use

1. sweet talk
2. scolding
3. threats

and when all failed, resorted to calling in the marines, a.k.a. Jr., who has a strange hold on her little sister. Sometimes, Jr. is able to get things out of the little one's hands when the adults have failed. Last week she got daddy's tea glass from the baby, just when she was going to drop it on the concrete in the backyard, looked at the adults and said "see, that was easy. all you have to do is ask nicely!". If you read carefully, I said "sometimes". Today was not Jr.'s day. She pulled out the clippers on the pretext of asking nicely and the little one promptly went on to combo #1...

SVD does not think the world is ready to see Combo #1! That will have to wait.

SVD also thinks he has no chance of controlling these girls by the time they become teenagers. He is wondering if he will be alive to see them reach their teens at this rate!

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What is he searching for..

We had promised ourselves a one day trip to Big Sur, when we had visited Julia Pfeiffer Burns park last Christmas. This week we finally made it. It was also a little anniversary treat.

We were all having a good time, until...

The little one decided to walk a 0.3 mile steep trail by herself. She would insist on holding my hand, her mothers hand as well her blanket wedged between her shoulder and head and walk the trail at the same time. Talk about having your cake, eating it too, and more.

Any attempts to lift her and walk, would end up in a wail, falling on the floor head first, a rolling action of the torso, with her butt held high in the air and legs kicking, all at once. A motion so complicated, yet executed in such a fashion that spiders, centipedes and other organisms with complicated body structures would dedicate temples in her honor.

We were at the bottom of a waterfall view point, when this tantrum (which I call Combo #1) started. I picked the little one up and started running. San, Balaji and the few other hikers present, were trying to find out what I was searhing for. It was a weird sight with a guy running around with a screaming, fighting kid on his shoulder, looking at the ground.

I was literally searching for "ground"! Combo #1 starts with "falling on the floor". When you are on a steep trail with rocks and roots everywhere on the ground, the surface doesnt provide the adequate banging cushion for a 19 month old kid! These manouvers were perfected on carpeted floors and the little one is still learning the concept of relative hardness.

Granted, it was not as glamorous as a Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson trying to find some field in a foreign location, to land their bullet ridden plane with the tail in flames. But I was in effect trying to do the exact same thing. Safely land the little one on a flat surface so she can start banging her head on the floor and teach the wild life at Big Sur a thing or two about showing displeasure. I kept running and finally dropped her on a wooden bridge. She promptly bumped her head on the wood, put her butt high in the air, did the kicking and screaming routine.

By this time, everyone in our little travel group caught up with me. I was expecting a pat on the back for saving the little one's head. But they did not understand why I even dropped her on the ground in the first place and gave me the "how cruel?" look.

They did get to see Combo #1 in gory detail multiple times as we walked back and have probably forgiven me by now.

I am still working on a video blog of all the different tantrum combos. The compiled movie will hit your screens sometime before 4th of July!

Here is the bridge, and the little one crossing it before she entered her phase.

And in other news, got the new camera on Friday, :)
And in other other news, will get the lens only on Monday, :( !!!
So the photo and video you see were all the work of the old S30.

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