Why is parenting so hard sometimes?

Wow last night may have been the hardest night I have had as a parent to date. Tough Love is what they call it I guess. UGHH

So to back up a little. We had a great day yesterday both the kids were awesome nobody got in trouble Ashlyn was about as close to perfect as a 3 year old can get. I was so excited. We went swimming about 4:00 and to our surprise about 20 min after we got in the pool Daddy was home and in his swimming suit. We had a great evening swimming and then the kids were great for dinner and bath.

OK well maybe not Ryan! This is what Ryan looked like at the end of dinner (Cheese Tortellini)

And Ashlyn will not allow you to take a picture of Ryan and not her! So here she is at dinner being silly! Ashlyn also make sure we say our prayers before Dinner ever night.

She always does the same one:
Dear God:
Thank you for Mommy & Daddy & Ryan Amen!

The other day before swimming she wanted to say a prayer. She puts her hands together and said: Dear God: Thank you for our pool. Amen! HA!
Then the day went from Great to horrible. I have mentioned that we have been having some problems recently with Ashlyn and her sleeping. She use to be an awesome sleeper go to bed at 8:30 no problem and we didn't see her until 7:30am. I am sure this is just a phase but she has not been wanting to go to bed on time and then she doesn't' stay in her room. This has been going on for 4-5 weeks and we are just worn out with it. She is not a pleasant person to sleep with for starters she kicks and flops around all night long, and secondly we just really like our kids to sleep in their own beds. If they go to bed at 8:30 pm that still give Trever and I our time together for the day and that has not been happening. Anyway, last night she fell asleep on the couch at 8:30. Trever took her up to bed and she woke up (like she always does) and then the war started. I was in the "SuperNanny Mode" I stayed at the top of the stairs and as soon as she came out of her room I would put her right back in bed with no talking (Well for the first 30 min) It was a little funny at first listening to her come up with all the excuses.

• She had to go to the bathroom (nope sorry you just went)
  
• She was sick
  
• She was sorry
• She wanted to go downstairs for 2 min.
• She was "Super Sorry"
  

Then she started crying so hard after about 45 min of this putting her back into her room that she could hardly breathe. Like I said it was only funny for about 2 min and then it was killing me. I had never heard her cry like that before and she was NOT giving up for anything. She was out of her bed as fast as I could put her in. I finally laid her in bed and gave her a big hug and I started crying. It's so hard to try and stay tough and have them crying and so worked up but I couldn't give up at this point and give into her or everything I had done would have been for nothing. It SUCKED! She finally laid in bed crying and I was standing next to her rubbing her head and she wanted to say good night to Daddy. So he came up and said good night and she held my hand and withing 3 min of her laying still and getting her crying under control she was out and slept in her room all night. It was an hour of pure hell. I told Trever that if she doesn't go to bed easier tonight (less then an hour and without that much crying) that I am calling SuperNanny myself. UGH, I felt so bad but I am praying that it works if we stay persistent.

She woke up this morning at 7:00am and came into our room and was all proud of herself that she stayed in her bed all night. She got to put a sticker on her chart so hopefully we are on a good path.

I can defiantly see after doing this for one night how the Parents on SuperNanny need her for support because I almost gave up a few times but I stuck to it. Probably not as strict as they do on the show but I did the best I could!

Let's pray tonight goes much better.