Frustration Expressions

Elise is a growing girl, and although she is doing a lot better at communicating with sign language, and an occasional verbal word, we are getting to a stage that has other frustrating circumstances that happen more frequently. She is getting so independent, and wants to do things by herself. This is good, and I try to let her do things, and make some choices, so she doesn't feel so helpless. However, we frequently are getting to the point where she gets frustrated. The ways she is expressing these feelings has been causing me some concern. She does three things. She bites herself or anything she can get in her mouth (or get her mouth on, like the gate for the stairs), she hits herself or anything she can reach with her hands, or she cries hard and makes herself throw up. I am trying to be very patient, to let her know if there is something that she shouldn't have or do, and when she tries to do one of these behaviors, I am trying to be patient, to ask her to stop, to say no, and then re-direct her attention to an activity or behavior that is acceptable. We read a lot of stories at mealtime, because that usually distracts her from being frustrated. She wants to feed herself, but there are some things she isn't getting to her mouth, and since we're still worried about her weight, I help her with the tough stuff. This often will make her frustrated, so I try to distract her with songs and stories, and the rainbow making snowflake. Sometimes this works great, sometimes not. There are times when I feel frustrated as well, especially when it has been a struggle to get her to eat, and then she makes herself throw up. Needless to say, I think that it is normal to have a toddler feel frustrated, and want to express that, but I also hope that we will quickly get to the point where she uses more acceptable ways to show her frustration. She is mostly a great girl, and getting lots better at feeding herself with a fork or spoon. She really likes the pastas that go so nicely on a fork. She enjoyed some raviolis the other day, and made a great mess on her face, her tray, her hands, and her white pants....luckily the tomato sauce came out when I treated it! But she enjoyed it....Until she found the stuff was all over her hands....she doesn't like to have yucky hands....

I guess this is all part of the process of growing up, and becoming independent, but I really hope we can move past the biting, hitting, and puking very quickly!
So far, we've not had any throwing up since around May 19. Maybe we're outgrowing this already!!!!!