Anger Management

A little while back I mentioned Ellie's new biting habit. From what I can remember, it started a few days before my parents came to visit last month, escalated pretty quickly, then (luckily) plateaued. I can say with almost 100% certainty that the biting isn't the result of teething because she only seems to bite in moments of extreme frustration (less often, excitement), like when I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and tell her she can't come near the open oven door or when I tell her for the tenth time that she can't play with the electrical cords. It's not really the number of times it's happened (because luckily, it's not too often) so much as the fervor with which she bites. First it was the upholstery on the couch and then, more upsetting, if I picked her up to take her away from such situations she would try to bite my shoulder. In fact, she tried that when we were leaving a friend's house because she didn't want to go home, literally moments after I told that friend about this recent development. Rugs, dolls, stuffed animals and books have all been unfortunate victims. There were even a few occasions when she tried to bite the tile and quickly found out that tile doesn't give. Luckily, no harm was done.

Although a little reluctant to admit it, I'm fairly sure I'm not the only parent to lose my patience, especially those times when she refuses to stop biting -- perhaps she and I feed off of each other's emotions. It also saddens me a little that she's reached an age where she expresses herself in this way. I'm making my best attempts at staying patient and calm while at the same time trying to diffuse the situations in which she feels the need to bite. "Gentle" has been the word of choice in our house, with a healthy dose of "no" -- just enough so she understands that biting is not an acceptable outlet for her frustration. I also keep telling myself this is in no way a reflection on Ellie or my parenting skills, but it is nonetheless unnerving when your toddler comes at you, teeth bared!

Fortunately, I have noticed a pretty steep decline in the number of biting incidents in the last week (notably those towards Brian or myself), so fingers crossed we're getting over the hump of her biting phase. Believe me when I say that the vast majority of the time she is the sweetest girl and hopefully as she starts to verbalize how she feels or what is upsetting her, we'll have far fewer biting episodes. Regardless of when that happens, I think we're seeing the beginnings of a very passionate personality!