Frustrated

Nathaniel is to stay in his seat and ask to be excused if he wishes to leave the dinner table. After several re-directions to sit, I gave the Mommy Ultimatum: 'If it happens one more time..." Thirty seconds later, he danced around the room and I had to follow through and place him in his booster with the seat belt. He shrieked hysterically for a minute or two, then sat in a stony momentary silence. He broke this reticence by folding his arms and bellowing crossly, "I'M . . . FWUH-STUH-WATED!"

He went on to explain his grievance in detail, and concluded by adding, "I'm bery, bery fwuhstuhwated, Mommy." I suppressed the urge to laugh long enough to grab my cell phone. By the time I recorded him, Nathaniel had settled down quite a bit and you can actually see him now hiding a grin and hamming it up:

I love his little "uh huh" at the end.

Now his little brother Aidan George can't tell me he's frustrated, or even that he's fwuhstuhwated. However, a good mother can always decipher her 13-month-old's emotional state. As such, I intuitively knew he was feeling frustrated tonight, as well. Watch carefully, and see if you can discern his subtle clues: