Happy Birthday Mckenna

Today was a memorable day...not all good memories, but we tried. I'll get to that later. We met Mckenna's friends Coley and Hannah at Build a Bear Workshop to make bears and then ate Happy Meals in the food court and had cake. It was a little chaotic but fun.

"I'm 3 today Mommy, see my fingers!"

Hannah, Baileigh, Mckenna and Coley waiting to stuff their bears.

Picking out a heart for her bear.
Mckenna was excited for her turn to wear the traditional family birthday hat.

They had wigs for the bears...now Brooke looks more like her sisters...and Mommy.

The day took a turn for the worse with an episode that would have qualified us for a visit from the Super Nanny. I seriously felt like I was having an out of body parenting experience as I watched Mckenna's tantrum. "Where is this coming from, what have I done?" That was all I could think. I got down on her level. Talked calmly. Held my ground. Was persistent. Then I fell apart and threw a tantrum with her. Do I really have a Masters in Family Counseling? I'm sure I never studied this technique in any of my classes. I don't recall my practicum supervisor discussing this theory. A lot of good that degree is doing me...I'm not using it professionally and can't even take advantage of it in my personal life. Her outburst turned into a 40 minute stand- off in her room that caused me to close the windows so that DHS wouldn't be called by my neighbors as she screamed bloody murder in protest over sitting in a spot on the floor where I told her to park it. After 10 minutes I regretted that I had ever told her to sit there but now it was a battle of wils.

I used to be concerned that these deployments would create permanent issues for the girls in their young lives...now I'm worried about the damage it's doing to me! Maybe 3 kids is enough. Perhaps this deployment is turning into a form of birth control in more then one way.