Natalie's Fits

I do not really like to write anything negative about my children, but this is a stage that I feel needs to be documented. My daughter, my sweet, petite little daughter is in a season of her development where I think she is overwhelmed with her feelings and cannot express them properly. Her demonstrative way of expressing her frustration or anger is through fits. These are not your run-of-the-mill temper tantrums. No, that would be too easy. No, she throws a knock-down, drag out fit that could involve any or ALL of the following: hitting, scratching, kicking, yelling, screaming and/or throwing of random objects. This girl has had more than her share of time-out in the last few weeks. She ends up having to sit there longer than the 4 minute recommended duration, because she cannot calm down in that short of time. Once she is all riled up, it takes her at least 15 minutes to calm down, breath and quite sniffling.

As far as the trigger? We are at a loss. It can be something as minor as me asking her to put her shoes on to something major like Cooper stealing her Hello Kitty to make her angry. Either way, she launches into this tirade that we have not figured out how to quell. We are hoping that soon enough she will get through this stage and go back to being our sweet, kind, gentle daughter.