Guest Blogger: The Face-off

Today's guest blogger is my dear BIL Wayne. I know you all recognize the name Morgan. My beautiful niece. I will say it has been so wonderful having a child the same age as Lily in the family. See Lily and Morgan are only a month apart in age. They are so cute together yet I can see flashes of the terror they will cause us in their teenage boy-crazed years. Since we found out we were pregnant at the same time, my SIL and I have bonded over pregnancy, milestones, sickness, and now....tantrums. Now I find it hard to believe that my sweet little niece would ever act like this, but I found it hard to believe that Lily would ever chunk a bowl of goldfish (last night BTW) at me either. It is nice to know I am not alone.

This is the story of Morgan's latest, and probably most embarrassing tantrum.....Enjoy!




Morgan's latest melt-down happened a couple Wednesdays ago while we were visiting Brent and Chris at their house. After dinner, we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood as it was a beautiful evening and the temperature was just perfect..

Throughout the entire visit, Morgan had been a perfect little angel. Maybe that's why we were caught so off-guard by what happened next. We took two small vehicles on the walk, Will's stroller and his little red plastic push-along car. Both children were content to ride and the adults enjoyed meaningful conversation as we strolled.

Will started climbing out of his car, so we decided to put him in the stroller, but there was one problem. Morgan was in his stroller. We thought this was a minor problem... one that we could easily remedy... we were so wrong.

Morgan wasn't ready to be evicted from the stroller and she made her demand to stay quite clear. We try not to immediately give in to these demands for fear that one day, we may lose control altogether and leave Morgan with an empty void where her strong character and deep sense or right and wrong should be.

So we stood our ground and Tanya removed her from the stroller Being thrust into limbo did not sit well with Morgan. She shrieked in one of those high decibel outbursts that can be heard for blocks. Then she started pulling her hair, which gladly gave itself up in huge handfuls. Telling her to stop made no sense to her and only fueled her intense anger.

Our serene stroll around the neighborhood had quickly deteriorated into the opening scenes of "The Super Nanny", but she was nowhere to be found. The only spectators to this event were Brent and Chris' unwitting neighbors

Wayne quickly put on his "Super Dad" cape and tried to intervene, but Morgan suddenly morphed from sweet, innocent child with a grievance into a vicious jungle cat with Kryptonite claws slashing every surface within range. Wayne's face and ears were in range unfortunately and he too let out a shriek... of immense pain.

The rest of the adults, sensing that the situation was going downhill fast, continued to walk further and further ahead and made it back to the house several minutes before the traveling sideshow. When Daddy and the "Wildcat" made it back, they went straight to the car and Wayne gave a sort of humble, "we're leaving... sorry for making a scene... thanks for dinner" remark.

On the way home, he tried to be inconspicuous as he glimpsed the reflection in the rearview mirror, compiling a damage report. The good news is that the scratches were superficial. The bad news is, we still aren't sure how to diffuse this type of behavior. Though we hate to hear that you're having the same type of issues with Lily, it is comforting to know that we are not alone.