The Dirty Marshmallow Meltdown

Emerson, our 2-year-old neighbor, joined us for dinner tonight, as her mom, Brooke, had an evening meeting. After the girls all finished their dinner of chicken nuggets, peas and carrots, and peaches (which Em didn't eat, by the way, Brooke!), Ivie pulled out the bag of marshmallows from the pantry and put some on the table for her and Em to share.

To preface the rest of this story, Ivie started the day today a bit wheezy, and it continued into this evening. She kept saying that she "wasn't sick" (probably because she was anticipating the "dinosaur" breathing treatment), even though she was more crabby than normal.

Anyway, at some point during the sharing of the marshmallows, Ivie went nuts. Started crying, spitting out a marshmallow, and saying "Emerson gave me a dirty marshmallow, and now I'm sick!". It was a complete meltdown, particularly since we couldn't decipher what, exactly, had made the marshmallow "dirty".

After her anger caused her to slap Macie's open sippy cup and spill milk all over the counter and floor, I carried Ivie up to her room for some cooling off time (read: Ivie screaming her head off for 5 straight minutes). Don't worry, Brooke, Em didn't witness any of this - Danny's mom came to get her right as I was carrying Iv up the stairs!

After about 5 minutes (it might have been closer to 7 or 8 - Ivie wasn't the only one that needed some cooling off time), I went upstairs to talk to her about getting angry (the standard "take a deep breath and make good choices" chat). But when I opened the door, she was standing at her bookshelf and had apparently just thrown up all over the floor. GROSS.

So I went over to comfort her and determine the best mode of clean-up, thinking to myself that it must have been the combination of her not feeling well and the hysterical screaming from being put in her room that pushed her over the top. But right about that time, Ivie gave me her opinion as to why she got sick. She said to me, "See, Mommy? The dirty marshmallow made me throw-up!".

Yeah, that must have been it, Iv. It's amazing the power of a "dirty" marshmallow, isn't it?!?