Joyful Reunion? Not so much.

This last weekend I met my parents at my aunt's house to pick up Blueberry.  I was excited to see her and have her back home.  I got to my aunt's on Saturday.  We hung out that day, went shopping, had a yummie dinner.  Sunday morning we got up bright and early to make the 10 hour drive back home.  Blueberry was bawling her eyes out at having to leave my parents.  Understandable. 

We got going down the road and she was very quiet.  Wouldn't talk to me much.  We stopped at a place on the way home, an 1880 town.  Blueberry whined and complained the whole time.  I thought it was very interesting and fun and tried to ignore the miserable child.  After our stop Blueberry fell asleep for a couple of hours which gave me some hope that when she woke up things would be better.  Wishful thinking.  We stopped to eat and she whined and complained about the restaurant.  She couldn't find anything she wanted to eat.  She didn't want to eat there but she didnt' know where she wanted to eat.  At that point I was starting to lose patience.  We managed to get through our meal and she did perk up a little after getting some food in her belly.

When we got home she whined and complained about helping me unload the car.  She dropped her water bottle, it broke and that's when she really lost her marbles.  I was so frustrated with her by then, I told her to just go inside and get ready for bed.  She pretty much locked herself in her room.  I went in after a little while to try and talk to her about things but again she wouldn't look at me, wouldn't talk to me.  I just told her that  I had been looking so forward to having her home and I was so disappointed in the way she was treating me.  She didn't acknowledge me at all so I went and took a shower, felt like a horrible mom and did a little crying myself.  I called SV and cried to him.  Good thing he was rational.  While I was talking to him Blueberry snuck in my room and put a note on my night stand that just said "I'm sorry". 

When I got off the phone we had a talk and things have been really good since.  She's been my sweet Blueberry again.  Thank goodness!  She misses Grandma and Grandpa and my sister, brother in law and nephews.  But, she's excited to be home too.  She was excited to go back to daycare and see her friends.  She is excited to start school next week.  We have open house at school tonight and we are both looking forward to meeting her teacher. 

Emotions are a funny thing.  Learning to deal with them is hard.  My hope is that Blueberry will learn that even though she may be feeling sad or mad, it is no excuse to treat others badly.  I am sure this is a situation we will be revisiting more than once, and I don't mind, as long as the lesson is eventually learned.