Oh Holy Meltdown

Tonight we witnessed a meltdown from Lili of ginormous proportions. To be quite honest, I have NO IDEA what the deal was. I picked her up from daycare and wrangled her into the car as she threw one of her typical I-don't-wanna-go fits. She is addicted to the outdoors and apparently did not feel she was done playing on the swings. She was fine on the short drive home, but as soon as we got out of the car......holy hell broke loose. It was 5:30pm, Will was fussing a bit and wanted out of his carseat and Lili was determined to continue her exploration of the outside world. Unfortunately, we had dinner, baths and our bedtime routine lined up for the evening while Drew was at class, so more time outside wasn't in the plan. USUALLY she cries and throws her body around for about 3 minutes after the garage door closes...then accepts the hard facts of indoor life and plays happily until dinner. Tonight...........not happening. She screamed and cried...grabbed everything within reach and threw it...banged on the front door to be let out... I carried Will upstairs (we have a split-level) and left her in the entryway to finish her fit.................but it didn't end. After about 10 minutes of this, I went back down...picked her up (which made her scream even more) and brought her upstairs too. In order to start dinner, I needed to know she was nearby and safe and on the same side of the gate as the rest of us. In the end I wasn't even given the chance to make dinner because Lili decided to grab onto my clothes and my legs and continue throwing her massive tantrum. Believe me when I say that I tried just about everything to calm her down. The only things I didn't do were spank her (just not my style) or put her in her crib and shut the door. Several people have insisted the crib sentencing works, however I don't want her to associate punishment with her bed. We worked too hard to get her to sleep through the night (most nights) and I refuse to sabotage it now. There were moments when I thought she was finally succumbing to exhaustion and she would fairly calmly agree to do something (like eat or take a bath), but 2 seconds later she was right back where we started. At one point I got her to sit at the table, but suddenly she was screaming again and I found myself in a one-sided food fight. Let's just say cereal can be grabbed and thrown by fistfuls and sweet potatoes can easily be flicked off of spoons, splattering every object within a 4 foot radius. Please don't ask why she was eating (or not eating) sweet potatoes and cereal. We're just lucky that she took a couple of bites. Anyway...after the food fight, we attempted a bath with the same results (minus the food). An hour and a half after we got home, she was on the couch...watching Barney...twirling her hair...with a Nuk in her mouth...and was QUIET. That's when I was finally able to give her a hug, tell her she's my "sweet girl" and have her smile back and say "Mama!". God only knows what was going through her mind tonight, but she is now in bed and I am hoping she stays there awhile!