Marie's Web Log

OK, so not much reaction to my hair. But thanks, Kenda, for your comments. I think the last time I had my hair this short was about eight or nine years ago, right around the time that I met you. A few people have said to me that short hair must be 'easier'. It's not. Not with my hair, anyway. In many ways it's harder, because I can't just put it up if I'm having a bad hair day.

You may be wondering what the title of today's post refers to. Well, it's not back to the future, really, it's back to the past - about 18 months ago, when Amelia was having tantrums on a daily basis. I think I mentioned that she's started having them again. Not quite daily, but almost. It began about two weeks ago, when we went to Bath where I did the one-day writing course. She had a tantrum in the car with Ian and refused to get out for three hours. This past Tuesday night, we were in Bournemouth with Ian and she woke up five or six times (!) during the night, screaming and shouting and kicking. Which is pretty awful when you're trapped with her in the bedroom of a B&B. The other morning when Ian took her to nursery, she had a screaming fit from the car all the way down to the nursery building.

What has triggered it? I don't know. I was doing some research on the Internet and one site said, "Sometimes tantrums return around the age of four." Great. It could be that the change in routine - Ian going to Bournemouth two days a week - has upset her. She's going through a bit of a negative stage anyway. She could be testing her boundaries. Last night she woke up at 3 a.m. and screamed for half an hour. The advice you're always given is to ignore tantrums so as not to reinforce the behaviour, but it's pretty hard to do under those circumstances. I have to admit, I was in tears. Sometimes being a parent really sucks.

Apart from the screaming episode, Bournemouth was nice. A bit quiet in the off season. I'll write more about it next time.