The Drama Queen and Her New Do

Raising girls and drama definitely go hand in hand.  But right now one girl stands out above the rest and is the official Drama Queen in the family.  I'm not really sure what it is.  I DO know this.  She LOVES attention.  And out of that arises a lot of interesting behavior.

The last 2 weeks we've had several events that SHOULD have been fun but instead ended up in Mackenzie being in tears over practically nothing.  She MAKES her own drama.  It started with Math Night at their school.  I had no sitter for the little girls and Mike was coming home late.  Despite my deep reservations of taking all 4, I went ahead and took everybody after the big girls begged and pleaded with me.  So we went.  There were all sorts of math games set up all over the cafeteria but most of them were too advanced for my little kindergarteners.  But they found their friends at one of the tables but something didn't go right for Mackenzie, and while I'm trying to entertain the little girls who are confined to their stroller (as always, poor little things), Mackenzie comes over to me and says it's not working right.  She doesn't want to stay at the kindergarten table.  So we go to some others.  We try game after game after game but they are all too hard and I can't dedicate myself to helping her because I have the little ones.  She starts telling me how "This is not fun at all! I want to go home!"  But she still refuses to go back to the table where there are all kinds of activities she can do. So we go in the snack line.  It was super crowded and I don't fit with the stroller and for some reason she wants me with her.  Even though I am 3 feet away it is not good enough. She's tearing up.  She makes me ask the snack lady for her snacks.  Well, lo and behold they were almost out of snacks (chex mix and punch) so they were heavily rationing it.  Mackenzie got about 3 bites of chex mix crumbs and about 3 sips of punch.  Now the crying has really started.  She never really did snap out of it.  At least Kaitlyn had a decent time or it would have all been for nothing.

Then....last Saturday was Explorer Fest at their school.  Games, all kinds of food, bouncy houses, prizes, you name it.  But what does she do?  Her prizes were these little bracelets that somehow kept managing to fall off her arm.  I kind of think she was losing them on purpose.  And then she would cry about losing them.  Then she purposely broke the ones she found and then cried about that.  I told her to play more games and get new ones.  Nope. She wouldn't do it.  She cried about every suggestion we gave her, making her own self more miserable by the minute instead of having fun doing all the stuff.  At one point she ran behind the bouncy house and sat in the grass crying.  I think it was more for effect than anything else.

Then there was Wednesday.  Western Day!  She was so excited to dress up.  She got up early so I would have time to braid her hair.  I put it in 2 pony tails first so it would be easier to braid but then I realized when I was done it may make her cowboy hat not go on right. But we were out of time. She seemed fine with it.  Then she did a 180.  Her shirt had a big heart on the chest but when we tied on her bandana it covered up the heart.  I suggested we turn the bandana sideways.  She started crying.  She wanted the bandana on straight but the heart still to show.  I almost said "Well, honey.  You can't have your cake and eat it too." But then I realized she wouldn't know what that meant and I didn't have time to explain it.  So I held my tongue.

So she was unhappy with her bandana but she still insisted on wearing it. Then she got in the car.  The hat fell off. I told her to wait til we got there to put the hat back on.  Then she starts complaining about her braids, telling me she wants to see ALL of the braid when her hat is on instead of just part of it. This is her way of telling me that she wants her hair braided with no pony tails in them, just the braids. But she is always very indirect when she talks so I have to decode what she is really saying.  I mean, isn't this all just getting a bit ridiculous?  This is probably a horrible read too.  I can just hear the readers.  "Come on!  This is all so stupid!  We don't even want to read about it!"  And I don't want to experience it!  Okay, it's not that bad but it IS ridiculous.  So we get to school and I ask her if she wants me to help her get her hat on.  No.  She gets out of the car without her hat.  As I drive away, she literally looks back at me with teary puppy dog eyes and a big pout on her face.  On the one hand it ripped my heart out and on the other it was all her doing!  I'm halfway home and my cell phone rings and it's the school.  Mackenzie is beside herself because she doesn't have her hat.  So I turn the car around and take the hat to her.  She ultimately had a great day but was all that really necessary?  When I pick her up she is in pig tails with no braids and I ask her what the best part of her day was.  Her reply: "Getting my hat!"

Wow.  What a child!

So then Thursday night she begs me to cut her hair. She's been asking me for a couple weeks to cut her hair, in her words, "enough so that everyone will notice."  Hey - who could blame her?  Many times I've chopped my hair to do something different.  Who doesn't like attention?  But I don't think I thought like that when I was 5.  So we did it. We chopped it.  It's super cute but I really think little girls are supposed to have long hair.  At least it grows fast.  So what do you think?

And she had a great day yesterday since everyone made a big deal over her!  Only now I'm not sure how to get it into a bun for their dance recital in 7 weeks.  But I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.