My Child, The Noisy Turtle.

Connor won't sit up anymore. He is very GOOD at sitting up, but he'd rather be crawling. The problem? He can't crawl.

I sit him up and only a few moments pass before he is leaning forward to get on his knees. He gets his hands on the ground and he bounces back and forth trying to get going...and eventually ends up on his tummy arms and legs splayed out like he is trying to fly. Once on his belly he flips over on his back and is stuck until I, the ever obliging mommy, comes to the rescue and sit him back up again.

I have cleared out my living room floor to give him extra space to roam. I thought with the extra room he might actually use rolling to get a little more mobile since crawling continues to elude him. He CAN roll both ways, but he doesn't WANT to. Once he is on his back, he behaves as though he is as helpless as a turtle and is VERY vocal about his dissatisfaction with this situation.

A few evenings back, Connor gave up on crawling and decided to spend some time just lying in the floor. He flipped to his back, dropping the toy he had been playing with in the process. It lay mere inches out of his grasp. Instead of rolling over to get it, he looked to me to hand it to him. How do I know this? He reeeeeeeached for the toy, then looking me directly in the eye with his hand stretched out he SCREECHED at me. Not crying. He was just screaming. He would reach for the toy then look at me and scream. The demand was clear. GIVE ME MY TOY! I laughed at him, I couldn't help myself. "I am NOT getting that for you. YOU get it." He was having nothing of it, though. He continued to scream his demands at me. I just waited. Eventually the frustration set in and he started to cry. I felt a little bad for him and leaned down and sat him up. He responded by grabbing my hair and pulling it as HARD as he could. I pulled my hair from his grasp and told him "NO" firmly.

The tantrum began.

I had no idea babies his age could even HAVE tantrums. Connor is apparently very advanced in that area. He threw himself back down on the ground and started screaming over and over again. He arched his back, pulled his hair, clutched and scratched at the back of his head and SHREIKED until his face turned purple. I have to admit, I was a little overwhelmed. What do you do with a tantruming baby?

I chose to let him scream. After a few minutes he started to calm and I tried sitting him up again. He was still crying and complaining and then he decided he was still mad so he thew himself back down and screamed some more. Eighteen pounds of torrential impotent fury is quite the sight, I assure you.

I'm not sure how to handle this! How do you communicate acceptable behaviour to someone who doesn't understand words? Toddlers I get. Toddlers understand "no", and "go to the corner", and other such things. What do you say to a baby who is pitching a fit?

For the record, I DID try using a firm voice during the tantrum, telling him to calm down. I don't even think he heard me.