Melody's Birthday Party

Brooke has a whole herd of unicorns. She loves all and any stuffed, or plastic unicorns there ever were. However, there is one unicorn in particular that Brooke adores more than any of her other toys. She got Melody at Nordstroms on a shopping trip at the mall, as a gift from Grandma Pack last year after behaving nicely on a shopping trip. Last Tuesday was especially special because I picked Brooke up from school and she had a few things to tell me. First, she told me that one of her most favorite friends wouldn't let her play with her that day, and she was sad about it. This happens on occasion, and we have a little talk about it every time. I explain that I understand that this little girl makes her sad when she wont play with her, but that we can't always have everything, the way that we would like it all the time, in our lives, and that the most important thing that we need to learn when things like that happen, is to make the choice to be happy anyways. Then I explain what that means. I tell her to allow herself to feel sad for a min. but then think of all the happy things in her life like, how much Mommy and Daddy love her always and no matter what, and think about how she is so smart and fun, and how she has so many friends to play with, not just that one, and then after she thinks of it she needs to go play happy, with a smile on her face, because then others will want to play with her because she is having fun. The second thing she told me was, that it was Melody the unicorn's birthday today, and we were going to have to have a party for her that night. While I was getting dinner ready later that night, Brooke was preparing the party in her room. She was decorating it, making goody bags, and of course inviting every toy that she had to the party. After dinner she invited Daddy and I to her room for the party. The floor was covered with toys, you could hardly step into the room. I didn't even comment knowing how excited Brooke was. We made space on the floor to play with all the ponies, barbies, stuffed animals of every kind, and suddenly after singing happy birthday to Melody, the party had a villain that had come to wreck the party. But don't worry Melody had a magic crystal to protect everyone. Soon after, it was bedtime and there was a huge mess to clean up. While I had been putting Will to bed, Kevin explained to Brooke that she had to clean the whole mess up by herself. This mess was very overwhelming, and Brooke was tired. She was crying and whining . I begged Kevin privately to let me help her clean up and he said no. Brooke even got in timeout for a min. then went back to cleaning. I asked again for him to let me help, and he said it would ruin everything. Well, he was right because Brooke cleaned up the whole mess by herself, putting each toy in the appropriate bin. She even suddenly seemed super happy while cleaning up. When she was done, she ran to me and said, " Look how good of a job I did Mommy! " with a big smile on her face. I said, " What a good job Brooke, I am so proud of you! " She then said, " Mommy, I just made the choice to be happy and clean up, because you don't always get what you want. " I was so glad that Kevin didn't let me help her clean up!