How a cookie reward turned into a tantrum

Yup, it was one of those days! Tristan was simply not happy around us today. Little things would trigger tantrums and they were being set off every so many minutes. It was utterly the pits! Ironically, he went to daycare during the day too. He woke up before 6AM and gave me a hard time all morning before we got to daycare :( He threw one of his longest tantrums ever. I think it lasted something like 20 minutes. When we picked him up from daycare he was the usual him. We didn't hear anything out of the ordinary that happened at daycare. He was difficult here and there throughout the evening and now, he is tantruming his way to sleep. Yes, go to sleep because I want a do-over tomorrow!

He was sick last week and is pretty much recovered so it's not sickness. He actually had a great appetite today as well. In fact, he ate pretty much everything we fed him during dinner. There was brown rice, egg, mushroom, salmon, duck, bell pepper, and green edamame soy beans. He ate well during the whole day too so it wasn't like he was starving either. It has been awhile since he has eaten this much. Afterwards, he finished his yogurt, papaya and orange. I told him I was happy that he ate well and that he deserved a treat. Jean-Louis and I negotiated and agreed to give him one elephant sugar cookie. Dinner was more or less going well so what could possibly go wrong, right?

It was an elephant sugar cookie. He played with it and then the trunk fell off! When he tried to piece it back together, more of the cookie broke off. It was like a puzzle he wanted to glue back together but he couldn't and he was super frustrated. While this little horror scene was unfolding, I tried to calmly explain to him that it's okay, you can still eat the cookie and it will still taste the same. I told him that when he puts it in his mouth it will break and crush to pieces anyway. No, he didn't go for that. He was mad about the broken cookie so he demanded another one. Yeah, right! So the tantrum begins. Jean-Louis and I looked at each other and I told him "boy, I sure did not see that one coming." Not even a treat could cheer this little guy up today.