Tatter Tantrums

Tatter Tantrums - n. used to define the display of emotions Tatum Bell feels when she does not get what she wants when she wants it, most often brought on during times of teething pain, hunger, and/or sleepiness.

Tatter Tantrums happen like this: Tatum walks to the pantry and pulls out a treat. Mom takes the treat out of her hand and puts it back in the pantry. Tatum begins to cry, lays belly-down on the floor, cries more, then soothes herself with her thumb. Or they could happen like this: we are walking around the neighborhood hand in hand, Tatum approaches the grouchy neighbor's yard and pulls to walk up his sidewalk and front steps, mom pulls her back for fear of a shotgun (not really but still) explaining that we don't live there and can't play on the steps, Tatum wails, and falls belly-down on the ground.

We are certain this has to do with teething, and not my parenting! We noticed an increased fussiness in Tatum last week and sure enough four more buds are coming through to compliment her two top and two bottom teeth. It's extremely helpful to see the teeth piercing through and point to the reason for all the fuss; but it makes my heart crawl knowing she's experiencing pain and there's little I can do to alleve it.