Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

When McKay woke up and 5:45 a.m. I knew what kind of a day it would be. I have been staying up late doing various projects and my usually sweet son has been getting up early, ever since daylight savings, so we were quite a combination yesterday with an even earlier wake up call than usual. McKay usually listens. McKay usually is sweet. McKay usually doesn't do a lot of whining. But McKay was not here yesterday. It was some other boy. Someone I didn't recognize. And I'm afraid I was not very nice to this new boy. I was sleep deprived, and at times acting like a three year old myself. Why does a three year old not understand "If you stop whining and crying about every little thing I would stop yelling at you!"? The new boy didn't stop. And I had to give myself a time out so that I could stop. It was not pleasant. The boy just had specific ideas in his head- very specific- and I was running around like a crazy person trying to help him with them, but they very seldom turned out the way he wanted, so he cried. I did my best to build a barn in the family room, but it was just never good enough for this boy. And he had a horribly mean face on all day. And so did I. And poor Elle witnessed it all, wondering where her family had gone.

After a whole morning of going at it I decided to just go ahead and let him have a donut for lunch at 10:45am and as I slammed the donut onto his plate and said, "Fine. Have it." I knew something had to be done about us. But it wasn't until he repeatedly demanded crackers, denying anything healthy that I suggested to go along with the dumb donut, that things took a turn. As I grabbed a handful of wheat thins and crashed them down on his plate, planning on heading to another mom time out, that I saw how ridiculous it all was. Shock was all over his face and then he cried some more because there were cracker crumbs on his donut. I sat down next to him at the table and took my own advice; deep breaths. Then I watched him eat all the frosting off the donut in little bites and I saw that maybe this could be considered cute. I put my head in my knees and started asking for help. McKay wondered why my head was down and I told him I was saying a little prayer. I asked him if he wanted to say a little prayer for us to feel better and he was starting before I could close my eyes.

"Dear Heavenly Father.
Thank you that me and mom will be better in our minds.
Thank you that we won't give up.
(hiccups begin to start)
Thank you that my hiccups will go away.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Note, "thank you" is used for gratitude, as well as asking for things.

I was completely humbled by this little prayer. I don't really know why he said what he did, but it was precious to me because those were his words. He was feeling just as awful as I was and that is what he felt necessary to say. And it's true. We really did need to be better in our minds. And I'm glad we didn't give up. After this, it wasn't a great day, but it certainly started going better than it had been. I stopped yelling and he didn't stop crying. But I stopped yelling, and that's what counts, you know, because I'm twenty-seven, not three.

By the way, those of you who see McKay will probably hear all about the time when Mommy threw the crackers in the air. Don't judge me.