HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHAWNY-BABY-KISS

What a happy day to celebrate the birth of Shawn/Dad. Yes-I know it was a few days ago, but in our house I like to think we celebrate the birth WEEK, which can be proven by the fact that the decorations are still up. While Shawn was at work, we got busy decorating for our island-themed party, to bring a little sunshine to the rainy day. By the time Shawn came home, the sun was shining, so we really didn't need the decor to help us out. It was a fun party that the girls were excited to dress-up for and surprise Dad. A little Brazalian music set the stage for some fine dancing in the living room by our "hula" girls. (We like to celebrate diversity whenever possible) Here are a few pictures of the Hawaiian-with-a-hint-of-South-America extravaganza:




This is not the typical expression of Brooke in front of a camera




Now that's more like it....and NO-I was not in a hula skirt, for everyone's sake.



Dad is holding Brooke tight-due to her undiagnosed illness of BTSD...(more on that later)



Way to go DAD! Happy Birthday to our #1 guy in the house!!

Now on to the BTSD I mentioned earlier. Brooke suffers from what I like to call "Birthday Traumatic Stress Disorder." Let me explain. Brooke has been petrified of this Happy Birthday plate we have that plays the Happy Birthday song when you push the button. It lights up and everything and even goes, "Happy Birthday, dear 'mmm mmm" so that you can fill in the "mmm mmm" with that special person's name. So cool, right? She HATED it. She would run and hide and cry and DID not like it. So we put it the closet and never really talked about it. For some reason, over the past year, the fear has developed so deeply that she can no longer function, but loses all ability to communicate and basically shuts down. The fear is that intense. One time, she was so overcome with fright, she curled up on my lap and fell asleep. The fear was too overwhelming. Here's a picture of it:



Not the best picture of me-but I was loving it, actually, because who doesn't love a good snuggle! Anyhoo, it has gotten worse, where now she can't even talk about birthdays. Her preschool teachers no longer sing the Happy Birthday song when it's someone's birthday in class. They have to do some alternative celebration song, so Brooke feels more comfortable. Great. So now I'm like one of those whiners who demands the Christmas decorations be taken down at the mall for fear it would offend that one Kwanzza person who might go strolling by. I told them they didn't need to change a universally accepted tradition for my daughter's weird phase, but they answered sweetly that they don't want anyone to feel threatened in their class, blah, blah, blah. Don't they know a little suffering is good for a person? Seriously, though, it is a real legitamate fear. Tonight, in fact, we brought up that her birthday is in a couple of weeks and she started talking really silly and fast to change the subject. We'll see how this all pans out, but any suggestions on how to unfear a child from birthdays? Maybe when she sees her presents she'll snap out of it. We'll see.