Tantrums!

Elena is quickly approaching her terrible twos. Most of the time she's still a sweetie, but these past few weeks have been rough between teething, being sick and endlessly being cooped up inside. She has quite the temper and by far the biggest "lip" I have ever seen in a child. A bird's not just going to poop on it, it's going to build a nest! Her tantrums get so wild that it's difficult to keep her from hurting herself sometimes.....but Seth and I were much the same as children so I guess we deserve this.

I've been getting a lot of these looks lately:


In the midst of a particularly tantrum-y day, I grabbed a nearby book to read while I was lying down with Elena. It was a book I hadn't read in over 10 years called The Story of a Soul. I only read a page or two of the introduction and I happened to read the following, which was written about the author by her mother:

"She flings herself into the most dreadful rages when things don't go as she wants them. She rolls on the ground as if she's given up hope of anything ever being right again. Sometimes she's so overcome that she chokes."

Who, you might ask, did this stubborn child become? None other than St. Therese of Lisieux - one of the most humble and widely-known saints of our time. So there's still hope. Thank you, St. Therese!