Who Is This Child?

It was a normal weekday and Amelia and I were headed out to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a wedding gift. I parked the car, got her out and proceeded to put her in the shopping cart. That's when I met the craziest child EVER! And it was MY daughter! She started flipping out. She was making noises I'd never heard come out of her. I'm talking about growls and howls and screams at a pitch befitting a howler monkey! It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen.

I decided to keep on and hope that she would calm down once we started moving around (as she normally does when she's a little upset in public). The key word there is a "little" upset. I was WRONG! I had to leave the store. There was no reasoning with her or comforting her or distracting her. I started to think something was hurting her so I did a full body search. Nothing. So we got back in the car. Surely she'd calm down when I told her we were headed home.

NOPE! She screamed and growled the entire way home. Good thing it was only a few minutes down the road. I was at my wit's end. I didn't know what was wrong with her or what was even happening at this point. I even texted Andy to see if he knew who was possessing our child - he didn't know either!

We pulled into the garage - still screaming. I got her out of the car - still screaming. We walked into the house - and she stopped! She was herself again. Ahhhhhhhh........

Well, it was short lived. The phone rang and I was talking to a friend for a while and she started up again! At least we weren't in public this time. I finally just had to put her in her room and close the door (I'd never had to do that before and it was well beyond a timeout situation). I stood by the door to make sure she wasn't knocking things down, and found that after about 30 seconds she was calm and talking to herself. So a few minutes later, I opened the door to check on her and she got up from her toys and closed the door on me. Apparently this alone time was doing the trick!

She was OK all the way up through her nap, but was NOT happy about waking up. This time the tantrum was short-lived, but it was still a very strange day. I will admit I was a little nervous about putting her in the car the next day to try again at the store - but she was perfect!

I wonder what set her off that day? And who was that child?