Meltdowns

Oy. Today has been quite the day so far. Ayden spent a good 30 minutes (at least) having a meltdown this morning over a stupid "Dusty toy."

A little background... One of his favorite movies is Disney's Planes. My nephews have two toy planes from that movie, Dusty Crophopper (what Ayden calls his Dusty Toy) and Skipper. Every time we go to their house, Ayden seeks out these two planes and they are "his" while we are there. When we stayed at Sis's house for the week when our sister from Montana was visiting, he slept with those silly planes every single night!

The other day when we went to the open house at their preschool, I saw a few of the toy planes from the movie....

Ayden started this morning out by just talking about ''his" Dusty toy and how he needed it. He needed one with a propeller; he told me there was a boy one and a girl one. He told me all about how he wanted one and he was going to get one. In fact, he talked as if it was a for sure thing that he was going to get one. This boggled my mind a little, as ironically, I had just last night bought him a Dusty toy (and another one I don't know the name of) at our semi-annual consignment sale! I couldn't help but wonder how he knew! I was going to surprise him with his new planes as soon as we made it through getting ready for school this morning, but he went from talking about these stupid planes to having a full on meltdown about them. He was not happy with the idea that he was going to have to share the planes at preschool with the other kids. He was convinced he wouldn't be able to have "his" Dusty toy. He cried and cried and cried and had a full on meltdown. I tried talking to him about how everyone had to take turns sharing the toys at school, and he would get his turn. Nothing I said to him worked to alleviate the tantrum. He went on and on and on. So obviously I wasn't able to give him his new planes, because there was NO WAY I was going to reward this meltdown by giving him exactly what it was he was throwing a fit about. I was really looking forward to surprising him with his very own Dusty toy, but now I can't. I also picked up a few little toy horses for Rylee, so they both would get a little surprise, but now the planes and horses are just hiding in a drawer until a more appropriate time that I can give them. Insert a little whining from me.

The culprits 

The innocent horses

I assumed the planes at the school belonged to the school, but that was not the case. When we arrived this morning, I talked to the head teacher about Ayden's rough morning because he was still pretty worked up. Turns out that the planes actually belonged to another kid who had brought them to school the other day and to the open house. She explained that the boy who brought them in was very good about sharing though. That would be all fine and good except for the part about Ayden NOT being a good sharer. The kid likes to claim things as his. Always has. He is getting better about it, but it's definitely a work in progress.

As I was about to leave after dropping off the kids, Ayden got into a tug of war with another kid over a book. Ayden didn't win the tug of war and proceeded to have another meltdown. To be fair, this other kid was hoarding about 20 books and most definitely did not want Ayden to have one. I took Ayden aside to calm him down, and then went back over to see if I could read a book with him to try settling him down again. As soon as this other kid saw Ayden coming back over, he laid on top of ALL the books! lol. Well, the teacher saw that happen and stepped in. She talked to Ayden about using his words, and if that didn't work then he needs to ask a teacher. I really liked how she handled the situation. Ayden settled down enough for me to leave and I wished the teacher luck.

Fortunately, Ayden ended up having a good day at school despite our rough morning. However, he came home still talking about the damn Dusty toy. Insert eye roll.

Ayden came home in a much better mood, but Rylee did not. Oh. My. Gahhhh. It was her turn to have major meltdowns. Her meltdown was over a rock and a nut she had collected and lost on the bike ride we took as soon as we got home from school. She cried for a solid half hour.

Then they both had meltdowns when I got mad about them playing with their dinosaurs instead of picking them up like I had asked a gazillion times. Granted, I should not have lost my temper, but after spending our entire day together with at least one of them crying over something, I was DONE.

Thank the Lord for quiet time. Now I just need to decide when to give them their new planes and horses. I don't feel like I should give them anytime soon, because I really don't want to be that parent that gives in when their child throws a tantrum over something they want. I'm so disappointed. I was really looking forward to seeing their reactions when Ayden gets his new Dusty toy and Rylee gets a few beloved horses.