Temper Tantrum in the Bathtub

We were taking a bath tonight and Esme decided she wanted to pull a gallon jug up off one of our shelves and into the bathtub. I told her No - once softly and then once with authority (little harsh) - and she began to do her drama queen throw a tantrum thing. But she learned the bathtub is not the place to throw a tantrum!

As she began to 'drama queen' fall to the ground and want to bang her head once and thrash 'oh I got hurt' she realized just almost too late she was in water up to her belly button. And she began to thrash 'oh no mommy I'm going underwater' and I caught her before she went under. She was very scared, as right she should be.

I shook my finger and said 'BE CAREFUL', and then before she could blubber about being scared I took her into my arms and held her but said again 'You have to BE CAREFUL, especially in the bathtub in the deep water, it's scary' and pointed to the water 'BE CAREFUL' which is something I say whenever she falls or bangs herself on something. She calmed down quite quickly although I was braced for a 'scared' tantrum which is much different than a 'mad' one.

She looked at the water and at me and then said 'RAR' and slapped the surface of the water several times. It was her way of saying she was mad at the scary water - and it was very funny.

She went on to play like normal and didn't touch the gallon jug again.