Little Petey has been in a foul mood fairly often in recent days. He’s 17 months old, and that is reason enough. But then he’s fighting a cold and to make things worse, he is cutting four molars at once.
Usually if I don’t manage to get a shower before he awakes, I can take him into my room and let him play. I don’t know what he does, because when I emerge ten minutes later I don’t see my personal items strewn about the room, but he manages to keep himself happy in that time. This is truly a blessing and quite unlike any of my other children who would spend most of the time while I was in the shower either scolding me or making a huge mess or both.
Yesterday, though, Pete had no desire to play happily while I took a shower. I even got down the hot rollers, something he rarely sees, but this “new toy” only made him mad. “How dare you try to distract me?” seemed to be his point. So instead of showering, we went downstairs and hung out until he was in a better mood.
I tried again. I intentionally ignored the hot rollers which were still on the floor from my previous attempt and showed him a hand-held mirror (often very popular with the kids). Nope. He tried to throw it and expressed to me by his writhing body that he was not interested in permitting me to take a shower. I put on my most stubborn expression and said quite firmly that at the very least I had to go to the bathroom. I placed him gently on the floor (not an easy thing to do with a toddler having a tantrum) and sat myself down. He marched over with an angry face, said “NO!“, and put his chubby hand over the toilet paper. “I’ll show you, Mom. I’ll make you drip dry! HA!” I couldn’t help but laugh.
Fortunately, his mood softened after a minute of us glaring at each other, alternating with me telling him he was being silly. He relinquinshed the toilet paper and went over to the hot rollers. And he amused himself for a nice long time.
Molars take a long time to come in. The top ones have been at it for several weeks now and still are only about half out. The bottom ones have only just popped a tiny corner out. So, perhaps by February he’ll be in a better mood!
Reit This Way 
Andrew is 18 months and has been teething too. The last molar is almost done, but he still has two more canines on the bottom. He is much more cheerful nowadays, once he ditched his cold a couple of weeks ago. The thing that makes it hard is that he suddenly went from 8 teeth to almost 16 in such a short time – that’s gotta hurt.
I am there with you sister. 🙂
P.S. That’s one reason I shower at night. 🙂
I used to shower at night, but now I run in the morning. I really need to take a shower afterward!!!
I love toddlers specifically for that stubborn streak! It is so darn funny. Hope his little gums feel better soon, though.
Shepherd has been in a constant state of teething now for about six months and just has six teeth. I can’t really wait to see what his true personality is in about…..oh……a year. Teething is so hard. 😦
Katie’s first tooth didn’t pop out until after her first birthday. I used to go to the pediatrician’s office begging him to tell me she had an ear infection, something, anything, please…she had what had to be teething pain for 6 months before that first tooth – and then for another 6 motnhs as they started to come in. Teething is NO fun.
Awww. Poor little man. Nicholas is eighteen months, not teething, and trouble through and through.
I can’t shower at night either. Naturally curly hair looks very bad in the morning.
Which is worse bad hair or a cranky baby?
Bad hair day = cranky mommy.
Cranky baby means a 50/50 chance that you have a cranky mommy.
I’d risk the cranky baby.
Or develop an affection for hats.
But, yes, teething is only a part of the problem. The rest is just simply being that age.