Dexter suddenly has obsessions about 2 things - his toothbrush and the Swiffer. If I have to take either of them away he throws tantrums. I'm talking about "throw myself on the floor and scream as loud as I can" type of tantrums. These are "pull mom's hair and head-butt her" tantrums. Dexter becomes "The Exorcist" baby, spitting, screaming, sometimes gagging himself with his finger and trying to vomit. I'm sure if he could, he's spin his head around too. He has amazing lungs too, so I'm sure our neighbors probably hate us now. I haven't heard many babies cry as loud as Dexter. He can drown out Squee's barking any day.
The toothbrush I just let him run around with it until he puts it down. That time period has gradually waned from about an hour to maybe 10 minutes. I pick my battles and most of the time this is not one worth causing a tantrum over. It's small and unobtrusive. It is also a great teether and it gets his teeth clean too.
The Swiffer is a new obsession. It isn't small, and it's very obtrusive. It's very cute to watch him sweep the floor with it, but after an hour, it's just irritating to watch him hit everything with it (including Squee). Yesterday, he learned to say "broom" and so he went to the kitchen and pointed to where the broom is stored and said "broom broom… broom"! I took a couple sections out of the handle to make it Dexter-size. He played with it which is fine, but when it was time to eat dinner he wouldn't put it down. I tried really hard to find a way to let him eat and still have the broom, but couldn't find one. He couldn't eat very well. I though it was funny how he wouldn't give me the broom and shaking his head no. I captured the drama with the Flip video camera. Then I decided I needed to take it from him. That was a huge mistake.
Dexter threw the longest tantrum. He spitted, screamed, snot flowed, he turned red and threw himself on the floor repeatedly. It was awful, so awful that I called Mr. Cobra and requested that he come home a little early hoping Dex might change his mood once Dad came home. No such luck! The little bugger cried for another 20 minutes, bringing the total tantrum time to approximately an hour. It reminded me of when he was a couple months old and cried for hours. He was inconsolable. I broke down and gave him his pacifier and he cuddled with dad for a bit while he read to him. Somewhere in that period he calmed down. I fed him half a banana for supper - it was all I could get down him. He then was in a good mood and ran around and played like nothing ever happened. The only clue was his puffy eyes. He didn't even cry when I put him down to sleep.
The Swiffer is in the closet only to be used when Dexter isn't around. We can longer can say broom around Dexter either. It sends him off looking for it. The nanny even said "room" and that set him off saying "broom" looking for it. It's kinda ridiculous. I'm sure this will be quite funny someday…
