Puddle Jumping in July

We are in the eye of the storm known as "Terrible Twos" around here. This has been an extremely difficult phase for all three of us; but we know that like all the other phases this will pass over soon (although the Terrible Twos have settled on us rather early--she is only 20 months after all! We're hoping this means this phase will also be over earlier!)

After a very rough night last night and several sweaty screaming tantrums (a sidenote about tantrum throwing: we have thankfully gotten past the biting tantrums. Today Clementine grabbed my arm in frustration and I thought "Oh, here we go," but instead she grabbed hold and licked my arm from wrist to elbow!) this afternoon, I knew we needed to mix it up a little bit around here. So we went puddle jumping on this rainy July day! She pretended to be aloof at first, but I could tell this was going to be exciting.

We found a perfect practice puddle at the end of our driveway. Clementine was excited because there were bubbles in the water. She started out just toe tapping. But then we really got going; we were stomping, Riverdancing and jumping in this starter sized puddle.

This got her good and warmed up. The clouds parted momentarily as she cracked a smile for me!

We found a delightfully deep puddle at the end of the street. This one was perfect for jumping and stomping.

At the end of the cul-de-sac, Clementine set off to discover untouched bodies of water. She has the jaunty little walk of a determined explorer!

When we were good and soaked we started heading back to our house. Clementine realized the fun was over and decided to sit down on the sidewalk and ignore me. This is her new move: ignore mommy, refuse eye contact, and, if necessary, go limp like a noodle.

Luckily, this situation didn't call for noodly appendages. I think she was wet and uncomfortable enough to find motivation to walk on her own back to the house.

Sure enough, this puddle jumping adventure did the trick. The rest of the afternoon/evening went without a single tantrum. We snuggled together until warm enough to play and color.