Ugh - tantrums!

Well, my fears have been realized. Miss Bug was paying attention to Tyler's antics and has decided she will try them out too. Sunday night I chalked it up to her being exhausted from playing outside when she absolutely refused to sit in her high chair or eat. She has gotten pretty clingy in the last couple of days and she was holding tight on to me and when we put her in her chair to eat she wouldn't bend her legs to sit and when we got her sitting she wouldn't put her legs down or stop pushing the tray away long enough to get it snapped. Then, when we finally coerced her into sitting she was dangerously rocking the stool with the booster attached and throwing all of her food. We put her to bed early and hoped that acting like a brat was just a by-product of fatigue. No such luck. Last night she did the same thing come dinner time until she was finally bribed with green beans (go figure). She ate her beans, ravioli and fruit while interspersing random whines, cries and yells for down and then had a complete meltdown before she was released. They got into the bath (a necessity after the ravioli) and proceeded to try to steal everything from each other and scream and cry. Bedtime has begun to be a struggle anyway, but last night was horrific with Katie just standing at the edge of her crib yelling "ma ma ma more" and dissolving into hysterical tears. I have to be at work earlier in June and July and so Lance released them from their cribs this morning while I tried to get ready. When I went in she was whining and crying again for me and then when we went to do her favorite thing (dance) she just laid on the floor kicking and screaming and crying. Suddenly, after about ten minutes of me trying to hold her (but Tyler wanted in on the action too and she was not happy about that), of ignoring her, of trying to distract her, etc., she just popped up and started playing. I don't know what is going on - I guess the terrible two's are hitting full force. We have two little stubborn, hotheads on our hands and the advice to just ignore them and let them have their tantrum is not working. I feel like I need to go to a parent bootcamp or something. I will count my blessings, though, and hope against hope that I am not jinxing myself but so far they have been really sweet to each other when the other one is acting ugly. Yesterday when Katie had a meltdown at the door because she wanted to go back outside Tyler brought her milk and a baby doll and even though she threw it down - it was sweet that he was trying to cheer her up. She does the same types of things for him - let's hope that continues and they don't decide to have twin meltdowns all of the time. Although, if both of them were doing it maybe it would be easier just to leave them thrashing and wailing together :-)!