Wrong Side of the Bed

Oy. This morning Harper slept late, so I had to wake him up. At first, he was fine.

But when I fixed his hair, he SOBBED that it was 'yucky! It looks weird!' He hadn't even looked at it.

Then he's sobbing and throwing a fit because I had him wear jeans and not shorts. 'They're too big!' (Because they're longer than shorts, he says they're too big.)

THEN he's hacked off because I told him he could wear his crocs or his tennis shoes. He wanted to wear his Thomas sandals. I said no way, it's too chilly outside and they're too small anyway.

This went on for 30 minutes.

I don't want to spank him, so I told him to stop crying, or I was going to leave Happy (teddy bear) and Bobbies (blankies) at home. Then I hear him, through tears, 'Bye Happy... I love you so much...' over and over. My heart was breaking. Seriously. I didn't want to leave his lovies at home! So I didn't. I packed them, but he didn't see me do it.

He cried the whole way to school for us to turn around and go get Happy and Bobbies. I knew they were in his bag, so I just kept asking him to stop crying and I'd get them. He would't stop. He gagged four times in the car. Ugh...

So we got to school. By now he's been crying for 45 minutes. He calmed down a little bit when we got there, but started up again before I left. I told his teacher what was going on. I told Harper, if he would quit crying and eat breakfast, I'd go get Happy and Bobbies and bring them to school. I told her, regardless, he can have them at naptime. But I want him to quit crying before he gets them this morning.

I'm so torn on this. Is it wrong for me to withhold his lovies when he acts like that? Or is it appropriate punishment? Part of me thinks that he might have calmed down if I'd given them to him, but the other part of me thinks that it would be rewarding bad behavior. Because it's not like he was just crying. He was screaming and throwing a fit, and talking back to me. It's inappropriate behavior and he needs to learn, he's not going to get what he wants by acting like that.

I called the school when I got to work and spoke to one of the assistant teachers. She said he quit crying and asked if she could give him Happy and Bobbies. I said definitely! He did what I said he needed to do!

I think he just didn't get his sleep out. I'm sure he'll be fine when I pick him up today. I don't like it when my baby bear is sad. :(