Carnevale in Rome with Nonna

Carnevale Coriandoli Confetti, oh MY!

Happy March everyone! We spent this past weekend visiting nonna and celebrating Carnevale in Rome. Carnevale in Europe is the only time where littering in public is pretty much expected – these little circle paper confetti or coriandoli are seen scattered all over the streets. We feel bad for the clean up crew, but darn is it fun to throw! (:

Terrible Twos

Okay, is anyone else having these tantrum moments with their two year olds lately? Imagine you are out having a wonderfully glorious time with your little one and something doesn’t go exactly as planned, then bam… tantrum central. Hello terrible twos, nice to meet you. This weekend’s tantrum happened moments after realizing that there were no more coriandoli to throw and Julienne went straight into her favorite head-in-knees tantrum position!

For Julienne, these moods may last anywhere from one to ten minutes and it hits like a mack truck. We are all smiles and laughter one second then the next she’s pouting or laying on the ground banging her feet.

Tantrum Techniques

What do we do when she gets bad and is whining on the floor? Lift her up? Oh, heck no! Have you ever tried to hold a child who decides to go stiff like a plank, all limbs straight out? Not fun. Lifting her out of these positions is pretty much a lose-lose situation, we accept the fact that she is having a moment and let her be. After a few minutes, we start to offer her distractions like pointing out interesting things in the area or giving her a choice of what she can do instead. One method that works really well with getting Julienne out of a funk is offering her a big hug and a kiss. Yea, I know… we’re really lucky with this one, she is so lovey-dovey that this trick works almost 90% of the time.

Another thing that we do is name Julienne’s emotions for her, asking her if she is (angry, sad, disappointed, happy, etc) and telling her that it is okay to feel that way. We heard (thank you Chelsea) that this allows toddlers to accept and understand their feelings before they can learn how to express them. Juli usually says, I like it or no like it, but we’re trying to get her to say, I’m (angry, sad, disappointed, happy, etc). So far, she hasn’t started to name her emotions, but we’re hoping it’s a good first step. If you have a tantrum technique that works for your toddler, please share the wealth and leave me a comment. I am always looking for new ideas.

Golfing Pro like Hal-mi

After our morning coriandoli excitement, it was lunch time with nonna and Julienne was gifted a new golfing set. Daddy tried to teach her how to putt-putt with two hands, but her golfing style was the one-armed polo swing!

Gnam Gnam

Oh ok nonna, golf can wait, let’s go eat!

p.s.
Don’t you just love Julienne’s adorably cute watermelon ruffle tutu (thanks Allison)!