A Toddler’s Guide to Tantrums

Preface – The Fine Art of the Tantrum

Chapter 1 – Know before you Throw: Planning ahead for Optimal Tantrums

    1.1 Timing: How to choose when to have your tantrum
    1.2 Motivation: Why should you consider having a tantrum?
    1.3 Location: How and where to get yourself noticed

Chapter 2 – Warm Up: Revving Up for a Tantrum

    2.1 Whining: A time-tested precursor
    2.2 Pouting: using the lower lip
    2.3 Tears: when to let the waterworks start

Chapter 3 – Vocalizations: what to say, and how to say it

    3.1 “I WANT,” “DON’T” and “NO”: Three standards of tantrum verbiage
    3.2 Repetition: No matter what you say, make sure you say it a lot.
    3.3 Repetition: No matter what you say, make sure you say it a LOT.
    3.4 REPETITION: No matter what you say, make sure you say it a LOT.
    3.5 Wailing, Shrieking and Howling: piercing or eardrum shattering, you’ve got to be LOUD

Chapter 4 – Throwing yourself into things: using your body

    4.1 The Limp Noodle: perfecting your boneless body
    4.2 The Flail: using arms and legs to express your feelings
    4.3 The Foot Stomp: a classic expression of anger
    4.4 The Throw: Tossing objects for greater impact
    4.5 The Throwdown: Throwing your whole body down for added affect

Chapter 5 – Personal Style: Making the Tantrum Your Own

    5.1 Lessons from the Greats: The Tantrum Hall of Fame

Chapter 6 – Consequences: What will happen when I have a tantrum?

    6.1 Frazzled Grown-ups: a guaranteed outcome
    6.2 Time outs & Loss of privileges: What have you got to lose?
    6.3 Will I get a puppy? Debunking the myths of tantrum outcome

This post is for the Monday Mission, hosted by Painted Maypole. This week’s assignment was to write a post in the form of a table of contents.

from behind closed doors

Dear Homeowner,

We regret to inform you that several individuals placed in our care are no longer eligible to continue residence in our facility.

In the uppermost level of the facility, several bagged items have greatly exceeded recommended levels of frost. In particular, the contents of the bag of store-brand Mixed Vegetables have become inextricably melded together.

In the Lower Level, in the departments known as “Vegetable Crisper,” we have become concerned about the rapid degeneration of one Bunch of Celery and several Zucchinis (aka “Courgettes”).

On the Main Level, a large container of Plain Yogurt has only recently expired, yet it is only the most recent such instance. There are several partially used jars of Salsa, Spaghetti Sauce and Various Condiments which should no longer be considered Viable for Consumption. While many are not yet visibly spoiled, our records indicate that these items have been in long-term care far beyond recommended time limits. We have been notified that the opening of the jar of Sweet Pickles, in particular, most certainly pre-dated the birth of your first child.

Additionally, there are many other items whose earthly remains may no longer be identifiable by visual means. There is a glass container which houses, according to our records, what had once been a portion of Canned Black Beans. We consider it advisable that these remains be removed from our premises and disposed of posthaste. Failure to do so may result in additional spoilage and potential generation of new life-forms.

Please remember that while we strive to provided the utmost in Low-Temperature Care, our ability to maintain levels of ick-free storage depends on your upholding your portion of the contract. Should these matters not be resolved in a timely matter, we may consider closing our facilities to further new items.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Your Refrigerator and Freezer

This week’s Monday Mission was to post in the form of a letter of regret. I have done so. Perhaps regrettably. To find more regrettable letters, check your mailbox. Or stop by Painted Maypole.

rockin’ rolls: bread hits of classic rock

And my brother’s back at home
With his Bagels and his Scones
We never got it off on the Cornbread stuff
What a drag, too many crumbs

               David Breadbowl
               – All the Yeast Dudes

Boulanger Records announces Rockin’ Rolls: A Collection of Classic Rock Bread Hits. This two-disc set promises to be the best thing since sliced bread.*

Disc 1 –

    Creedence Crumpet Revival – Fortunate Scone
    Rusk – Frybread by Night
    Fleetwood Matzo – Dough Your Own Way
    Iggy Poptarts – Crust for Life
    The Doughs – Challah, I Love You
    Deep Pumpernickel – Toast on the Water
    Croissant, Stills, Lavash & Young – Teach your Ciabatta
    The Bagels – You’ve Got to Hide Your Loaf Away
    Steve Muffin Band – Take the Honey Bun
    Pink Flatbread – Dark Side of the Croissant
    Croutons Trio – Where has all the Flour Gone?

Disc 2 –

    Pita Frampton – Baby I love Your Grain
    Blood Sweat & Tortillas – You Bake Me So Very Happy
    Blue Oyster Crackers – (Don’t Fear) the Sourdough
    Nick Cave and the Bad Seedbuns – Into My Oven
    Americrust – I Knead You
    Lof Zeppelin – Stairway to Leaven
    Grateful Bread – Uncle John’s Baguette
    Rye Toast Speedwagon – Kaiser Roll with the Changes
    Chapati Smith Band – Biscuit the Night
    Challah and Oatbread – Naaneater
    The Rolling Scones – Sympathy for the Bagel

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*I wonder if I need to start having warning labels on my posts: This post contains extremely high levels of puns, wordplay and other silliness. Proceed at your own risk.

rural advertising opportunities

Out here in the country, we don’t have those high-falutin’ “billboards” you city people have.

This space available for your ad.

(If anyone else has a caption for this, please leave it in the comments. Or write it on a piece of paper, tape it to a farm animal, and walk it over here for me to read.)

a chance for pants

    Every time I have the chance
    While some may think it’s whack
    I’ll write a post involving pants

    Let the kitchen swarm with ants
    Leave the laundry on the rack
    Every time I have the chance

    I give my work a sideways glance
    I may catch a lot of flak
    I’ll write a post involving pants

    Humming lines from Safety Dance
    I’ll type away upon my Mac
    Every time I have the chance

    I’ll not read a bad romance
    Nor journal papers in their stack
    I’ll write a post involving pants

    Though others look at me askance
    I swear I’m not on crack
    Every time I have the chance
    I’ll write a post involving pants

—————

These pants are dedicated, in loving memory, to my friend Elizabeth, whose claim that pants was the funniest word in the English language first introduced me to the humorous powers of pants. Your pants will never be forgotten, dear friend.

The form of this post is a villanelle, a style of poetry, and the assignment of today’s Monday Mission. Please pay a visit to Painted Maypole to see who else has chosen to accept this mission. Painted herself has told me that she has a poem up, also with the theme of pants. (Painted penned a poem of pants.)

Today also marks the third anniversary of this blog. It seemed only fitting that it should wear plenty of pants today.

pb165587

web surfing: unclear on the concept

pb025224 2
Theo has yet to master the finer points of web surfing.

Yo, dudes! Can anyone tell me what happened to Google reader? At some point in the last few weeks, it stopped displaying blogs in folders, and I can’t make sense of the big jumble of unread posts that are accumulating. I keep popping over, realizing that it’s all a big mess, stabbing at a few unread posts, and then wandering off again. I think i may have to move along yet another feed reader, or revert to Safari. Is there some way to fix Google reader? What are other people using these days for a feed reader?

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In other news, Holly and I are putting together the October Just Posts, which we’ll put up in a few days. (Possibly Friday.) If you read and/or wrote any posts on topics of social justice in the month of October, we’d love to include them in our roundtable. We need your help to keep the Just Posts alive!

Want to learn more? Check our the JP info pages here or there.

A Panthropology 101 Vocabulary Primer

For those of you new to the study of pants, it may be helpful to learn a few key terms commonly used by the field’s top panthropologists. As an exercise, please use one of the following words in a sentence.

    pantipathy: a strong aversion to pants
    pantiquity: bloomers of old
    pantithesis: the opposite of pants
    pantidote: a remedy for really ugly pants
    pantidisestablishmentarianism: a fierce opposition to going shopping for pants
    pantagonize: to cause annoyance by mocking someone’s ugly pants
    pantepenultimate: the pants you wear when you are almost, but not quite, down to your last pair of clean pants.
    pantecedent: the pants you wore yesterday
    pantennae: trouser-shaped appendages atop the head (see also pantlers)
    panterior: the front side of one’s pants
    pantathema: really, really ugly pants
    panthem: a song of pants celebration. PANTS!
    panthology: a collection of short pants
    panthrax: an infectious disease that makes one’s pants fit poorly
    panthropormorphism: ascribing properties of pants to objects or creatures
    pantlers: the horns atop the head of a pantelope
    pantomime: the trousers of a mime
A pair of pantennae.
A pair of pantennae.

This load of pants was for a Monday Mission, hosted by Painted Maypants. This week’s assignment was to write a post in the form of a vocabulary list.

Monday momentum

scurrying2

This task was completed as part of the Monday Missions. This week’s assignment was to post in the form of a tanga or a nonnet. Like Painted Maypole, the illustrious MM taskmaster herself, I put together a tanka tanga. And like Painted, I’m also hoping I’ll get around to trying my hand at the nonnet.