Flash Flood (of emotions) Warning!

Today when I was picking Kaleb up at day care I told him it was time to put on his coat and he vehemently objected to that idea. I told him that it was time to go home and that meant we had to go outside to get to the car, so he needed his coat because it was cold and raining. Yeah, logic and toddlers don't really get along all that well. So, I wrestled him into this coat and he started carrying on and yelling that he didn't want his coat. When I had the coat fastened he ran away from me, crying (no tears, just angry), to the other side of the play room. From there he stood in the corner continuing to cry and looking from me to Miss Megan. I did my normal thing of keeping eye contact but letting him have his space. Miss Megan commented on how he does this during the day and other people look at her like she is so mean for giving him space, letting him cry and not going and trying to hug him or something. She said she doesn't ignore him, just keeps an eye on him and let's him do his thing until he either calls for her, comes to her, or comes out of it on his own. She then said that he typically only does this for a minute or two and then he's fine, completely moves on to some other activity.

There are two things about this experience that I want to capture:

1. I reeeeally like Miss Megan, she totally 'gets' my son! Because if you go over and try to hug Kaleb when he is venting like this it just pisses him off even more. I also really love that she is open with me about Kaleb's day, sharing with me that this happens but doing it in a positive way, not implying that he is a problem child, rather sharing that this has happened before and letting me know how she handled it. I'm going to be very sad when Miss Megan gets to move up to the 4 year old room!

2. Kaleb is SO my baby! His response to frustration or anger is the same as mine, I just have to find different ways to express it since I don't think my co-workers would appreciate if I started hollering like a wounded dinosaur and running around the office when I'm angry...although it would be entertaining ;) Kaleb and I have flash expressions of our emotions, and then we are done and on to the next thing. When he is mad about something he just has this intense outburst and then it is over, rarely does he pout or dwell on whatever it was that made him mad. Typically, once the outburst expression of emotion is done, he picks himself off and moves on.

For example, after a minute in the corner today, Kaleb walked over to the slide in the room (still crying so we were sure to know how mad he was at me!)and climbed up to the top. He sat on the top of the slide and carried on a little more, then he slid down. He laughed when he got to the bottom and that was that.

It's pretty cool to me to see my kid displaying traits like my own. And, after typing that thought, pretty scary, too!