Little Pinata is usually pretty well behaved, but he's also a very spirited child. He's either extraordinarily happy or really asserting that he's upset. We try to be calm and talk through situations with him when he's upset, and that works most of the time.

However, today was a disaster. We tried to do Library story time for toddlers and he just ran around excitedly screaming. So, we left early. Then, we attempted a trip to Target and this was when the out-of-character meltdown happenned.

He just cried and cried for me to "hold you," so I tried to hold him, but then he would cry about something else, followed by a freak out about his sticker and his non-existent "boo boo." He would calm down, and then within 5 minutes have a meltdown about something else, totally crazy! I thought "maybe he's hungry. He didn't have the BEST breakfast", so I tried to give him an applesauce pouch, which was followed by screaming that he didn't want the applesauce pouch and then when I put it away he screamed that he DID want it. This continued until I decided we were going to just leave our cart in the middle of the store and go home. I've definitely never had to do that before.

Is this normal? The "I want this and then when I get it I scream that I don't want it" back and forth thing? It's very new and we don't give him things when he screams, so he has to ask nicely first, but he asks nicely then gets it and then goes into meltdown mode. WHAT!?

Of course, as soon as we got into the car he was totally calm and ate his applesauce pouch and didn't fuss the whole time. We got home at 11:15 and he was acting SUPER tired (not to mention the aforementioned meltdown at Target). So, because he just had some applesauce and was a total mess I started him naptime routine and skipped lunch. He didn't even want me to rock him and requested his crib and then was asleep in less than a minute

So, obviously there was some exhaustion going on here (weird since he slept more than 12 hours last night). But, it made me think of this new "I want this, no I don't so I'm going to freak out and go back and forth about it to drive you crazy" behavior. Is this normal for a 2.5 year old and how do you usually handle it?