Failure to communicate

What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.

~ Cool Hand Luke

Sylvie’s emotions run pretty fast and thick.  As she flips around in my arms in yet another sudden fit of anger, I often have the above line run through my head.

I’m really hoping that this year we can work on communication a lot.  Granted, most of the time I know what she wants.  She’s great at pointing, she nods and shakes her head.  She says, “Maaa MA!” in different tones to indicate preference.  She also starting to try out different sounds sometimes.  Like, “Baabaa” meant stream or water the other day.  She was entranced by Sligo Creek and shouted “Baaabaa” whenever she saw it.  She also may have said “CraCa” for cracker last week.  And there’ve been a couple words that slip my mind that she’s tried out in the last couple days.

But in general, if things aren’t going her way, or if she’s tired and I guess wrong about what she wants, she gets, er, really mad.  Really mad.  And it’s hard to calm her down for quite some time.  Sometimes I know what she wants and I don’t want her to do it.  In those cases, it’s also very hard to calm her down.

We went to a park early this morning with Andrew, Evelyn, and Sylvie.  Sylvie had two lengthy, loud, and unstoppable tantrums before we called it a day.  I think she was just too tired since yesterday she only took a 45 minute nap.  But when she’s in that angry place, I can’t talk her down.  I’m hoping that maybe as she develops language skills that we might have an extra tool to deal with those kinds of situations.  For Sylvie, when the floodgates of anger and frustration open, it’s hard for that little girl to find a way to turn off the tap.

Eventually, she nearly fell asleep in my arms, and right now she’s taking a nap.  She’s been having a relatively hard time here on our trip.  Usually it seems like new environments stimulate her in a fun and exciting way, but she’s had few happy, joyful moments here so far.  Two big exceptions are when we play in the sandbox, in the kiddie pool, or in the tree swing.

Oops, she’s calling now!

Wish us luck.

Post Nap Update:  Sylvie woke up in a glorious mood.  She had a snack, and she’s been full of dimples and smiles and sweet curls.  She loves Pippin the dog, and she’s giving kisses and hugs to everyone.  What a difference a nap can make!