Help Wanted

Suddenly my darling baby has turned into a devilish tornado of energy and anger, resulting in wall-banging, yelling, throwing, and inevitably... time outs. And then occasionally, catches me off guard with the cutest little finger-pointing, "I love YOU"s. How is it possible to be so cute and so difficult at the same time?

Houston has always been what Dr. Karp would call "spririted" -- he knows what he wants and will certainly let you know what it is, even if you can't decode his screaming language. At 3 months old, we couldn't go anywhere in the car without hearing Houston's shrill cries in the backseat. Now, Houston gets angry about having to wear a coat. And in case you don't live within 500 miles of my zipcode, it's approximately, oh, 0 degrees outside.

This is how we spend the last 30 minutes in the car:
Houston: pulling at chest, screaming, "OFF! OFF"
Me: Houston, we have to wear coats outside. It's winter!
Houston: WAHHHHH.
Me: Houston, look, momma wears coats too!
Houston: WAHHHHH.
Me: Houston, mommy is getting mad. No more crying.
Houston: WA-HAAAAAAAH.
Me: Houston, stop crying. You are FINE.
Houston: WA-HA-HAAAAA.
Me: Fine. Mommy's going to Dunkin Donuts and getting a chocolate donut JUST FOR ME AND NOT FOR YOU (turns music up)!

I've turned just as freakin' crazy as my kid!

I tried looking up my issues on the internet. Lo and behold there ARE other kids who don't wear coats. Advice on this issue? a) Spanking. b) Dressing your kid outside. c) Letting your kid wear what they want. d) Letting your kid choose their coat.

Here are my issues with these solutions: a) I don't spank. Although, I've learned as a mom, you never rule anything out, I'm pretty sure I'm not a spanker. And certainly not for something like not wanting to wear a coat. b) Dressing your kid outside? I hate being cold. That doesn't work for ME. I don't even care about what Houston thinks on the subject. c) I'm sorry, but I hardly think a 2-year old is capable of making decisions about proper dress. I guess this is the "let them figure out that they'll be freezing in 3 minutes" approach. Doesn't seem safe. Doesn't seem practical for someone who doesn't fully understand the concept of WEATHER. d) Do other people have more than one winter coat for their kid? I certainly don't.

Thus, I'm on my own. Pretty soon I'm going to be doing all of my errands from 7-9 when Justin's home from work because I can't STAND the crying and I can't STAND the public tantrums and I'm going to get FAT on anger donuts. Help a sister out. Give me some tantrum advice PLEASSSSE.