taming tantrum

sienna has temper tantrums. her "terrible two" syndrome started when she turned one. by age three, she has much tamed, due to our effective measures of not taming, i guess.
this is how a tantrum would play out. a couple of days though, sienna got two temp tattoos at amy's house on sunday. two nights ago, she decided that she would remove the one on her right arm. so she washed it deligently herself applying soap and using a sponge.

yesterday i put her in the bath and i used a sponge to quickly remove the other. what followed was a major blow-up. i told her that i was sorry that i did know she wanted to keep this one. but she started to throw the toy tea set in the tub, splash the water and scream like hell.

i left the room with the door ajacent. later i was afraid that she was going to make a fall on the tub, so i wrapped her up in the towel and placed her in her bed. then i closed the bedroom door and said, "tell me when you are ready to put the clothes on." she came to the door and tried to open it to no avail.

i opened the door to find that she was still at it about me washing away her tattoo. then i closed the door again until she agreed to put the clothes on. at one point she said, "mama, im sorry." it took me by surprise and i asked, "what did you say?" she didn't answer me. i turned around and heard her saying again, "i said im sorry." i responded, "i said i am sorry too."

the best way to deal with a tantrum is to let it pass instead of dealing with it head on. and very importantly, you don't get mad yourself.