My 13 month old DS has been extremely grumpy in the evening after coming home from nursery for the last month or so. He has recently consolidated his formerly three naps a day (until just short of his first birthday) into one long one at lunch, so that may well be the reason. So when he gets home from nursery at about 5.30, it's usually a tantrum all the way to bed time. At dinner time, food and drink bottles are being flung from the high chair... on rare occasions, we can still make him smile or giggle though!
Is there anything I can do? He goes to bed at about 8pm (bedtime routine starting about 7.15), and we can't really bring this forward by much (plus, it works for us in the morning when he normally wakes up exactly when we need him up). Is this another phase that will 'just pass' once he has got used to his new sleeping schedule (and how long might that take)? Another issue might be that he doesn't have any words yet except "Da" (to point at something), "Mama", "Dada" and "Teda" (which I think means "Teddy")... friends have told me that the tantrums might get better once he can express himself a bit.
Just up for opinions really, I don't make much of an issue of it, although I don't like having to clean the kitchen floor every day!!!! We could feed another child with what's landing on the floor....