Can't stand the whining!

There is nothing more annoying to me than a whiny toddler. Last week, when Charla was sick, she was whiny. I tried to stay as patient as possible because I knew she felt like total crap. This week, however, I'm back to my zero tolerance policy!

The weather here has been cold. I live in Wisconsin so the last 2 weeks or so has only seen highs in the low 20's, not fun and some days it hasn't even hit that. Needless to say that means most of my day is spent indoors trying to keep both myself and Charla entertained. Charla is getting bored. The toys from Christmas are already 2 weeks old and losing their appeal. We live in a condo but have a private basement so I take Charla downstairs every couple of days. This helps put a bit of spark back in our mundane existence.

Today was a balmy 21F outside so I decided to brave the elements and take Charla and our dog, poor soul, she's been staring out the window wistfully the last few days, on a walk. It started off well. Charla asked where her swing went (for the thousandth time) as we walked down the driveway. I asked her to hold my hand as we crossed the street and off we went. About 2 houses down we hit an icy patch. I pointed it out to Charla so she knew to walk slowly and held her hand. Then she slipped. I had her hand so her fall was more of a firm sit but it was still the end of the world. Nothing could get her to stop the whining. I tried talking to her about puppies, snow, how mommy really didn't want to carry her the entire walk, nothing stopped the "Mama, up!" that she kept repeating like a broken record. So we turned around and went home, the poor dog was extremely disappointed and I was about ready to pull my hair out from being stuck in the house.

The rest of the morning actually went fairly well. We read some books and then she asked to watch Elmo (she actually couldn't care less about Elmo she likes Dorothy the fish!). After that it was lunch time. Shortly after starting lunch however, she bit her tongue (I think?) and started the whining again!

"Blankie! Blankie! Done! Down!" So I cleaned her up and she got down to find blankie. After 2 min of that she was back. "Milk. Eat. Chair." So I tried to put her back in her highchair. "NO! Mama chair!" She wanted to sit on my lap and eat her lunch. Fine! After that she was good as gold and is now sleeping peacefully.

Thankfully she has quite a few words and at least she's using them while she's whining, but that tone just drives me nuts!