Little Temper

We had the opportunity to take a short trip to Utah this past weekend to celebrate Papa John's 60th Birthday and his retirement from the National Guard after four decades of dedicated service. Grandpa Strong was also up in Salt Lake but under less pleasurable circumstances. He needed to have surgery on an artery which was almost completely clogged. He looked pretty bad in the hospital, but after the surgery looked just like his old self. The vacation was really fun and I always love to see my siblings and of course all of the little neices and nephews. We were able to do some fun things and even the weather cooperated with us, staying in the 70's until we wanted to go down to Seven Peaks at which point it warmed up into the 80's. The time as it always does, comes so fast for us to return home. We finally convinced Brandt and Soupie to let us kidnap Carlee for a few days so we could have fun with her and let her know how much we love her. On the way home from Utah Nicole had lots of treats and goodies for the kids to munch on so they wouldn't be too crazy. About the time we were just South of Primm, Nevada, Savannah asked for another treat. I explained to her that she had eaten enough treats and she needed to wait for a short time before she could have any more. She and I went back and forth for a few minutes about why and because and why and because and so on and so on. Finally, she became frustrated with my lack of compromise and she decided to describe her feelings to me.

"I just want to hit something so bad!" I turned around fully expecting to see her punch the little t.v. screen on the headrest in front of her, or even worse possibly some unknown rotted out food matter from her car seat being flung at my face! I didn't see either thankfully. She was just staring at me with a look I don't think I've ever seen from her. A look of absolute anger at me for not letting her eat more treats. I told her that it isn't good to hit things just because she was angry. She replied, "I didn't hit anything Daddy, I just want to real bad!"

Picture is obviously not Savannah, I just don't have any pictures of her with the look of anger like she had at the time of the incident. This little girl is pretty close to it though so I included it.

What do I say to that? I guess I should just be happy that she has enough restraint that although she propably often times wants to take off her shoe and throw it at my head she doesn't. She just tells me that she wants to. Hopefully she will retain that wonderful quality as she gets older and I never get punched by my little darling! It was pretty cute though to see her get so worked up over something so simple.