Maybe they are horns after all

Alex is learning to perfect the art of a temper tantrum.  If a situation is not to his liking he will instantly drop to his bottom screaming and hit his head on the floor repeatedly.  If he's being held at the time of the offense, he'll raise his arms up in the air and arch his back effectively causing you to loose your hold on him, then begin writhing around until you put him down, where he will of course, drop on his butt and scream while hitting his head on the floor. 

The screaming is not your normal scream either, it's a blood curdling scream you might expect to hear from a child having his arms ripped off of his body.  High pitched and VERY, VERY angry.  In between the high pitched screams is a low rumbling growl, as if he's some kind of attack dog warning an intruder not to come any further.

I figured all of this anger was coming out this week because we've been cooped up in the house due to my being a wimp about going out in the cold, cold snow.  So I took him to the mall to play in the indoor play area with some other kids.  He threw fits all the way there.  I had him in his big puffy coat and hat, which he hates and he spent the entire drive pulling at the hat trying to get it off and screaming the scream of death.  Once we got there, I took off his winter gear and set him loose in the play area.  He played pretty well, but he often escapes and tries to steal things from the store attached to the play area, so several times the other people at the mall got to experience The Alex Tantrum (patent pending) when I had to take away the stolen toy and herd him back to the play area.

"How old is he?" Asked another woman when he was banging his head against the foam floor
"Almost 15 months" I replied
"Oh wow, well, you're in for it when he turns two then"
"You mean it gets worse than this?"
"It probably will."

Great.

We stayed at the play area for about 45 minutes or so and I think it really helped for him to let off some steam and interact with some other kids.  Though it was a bit disconcerting on the way home, Alex was in the back seat playing with a toy light saber and saying "Ebil, ebil, eeeeeeeeeeeeebil"