It is hard without Dad when you are 3 years old

For the first time since Chris left for training and Afghanistan we have received a "bad" report from Audrey's school. She is an amazing kid...she really is. We rarely have behavioral issues. I am not saying she is a saint because of course we have our 3 year old meltdowns, tantrums or bad days. But overall she is really good. There are never any issues at school and when I am home with her she is generally very well behaved. Until the last few days. I noticed a change over the weekend.. a few extra meltdown but I chalked it up to coming down with a cold  (her nose had been running for a day or so) and her shots at the doctor last weekend. But Tuesday and Wednesday this week she had a meltdown on the way out of school. This never happens. And then her teachers noticed. It was brought to my attention by her teacher that she had to go to "time out" at school (again, this is a first) Just being aggressive and not playing nicely. This is totally out of character for Audrey and now I have realized that time is starting to wear on her too. She told me the other night," Dad is not proud of me" as she hysterically cried.  I do not understand where she gets this stuff from or why she would say this. I guess in a 3 years old mind if her dad is not home that in turn means he is proud of her. I was trying to hold it together and explain that of course he is very proud of her for everything that she does. A hard day.

 Then today when I picked her up from school as she went to grab her coat in the other room her teacher told me that Audrey told them and tried to convince them that her dad was picking her up from school today. And when I got there she was very disappointed that it was me and not Chris. Where did she get the idea that her dad was picking her up? This has all just happened within the last few days. We are 3 months into this deployment and I beginning to realize that she is getting as frustrated as me. I could never imagine having older kids and trying to deal with deployment... a 3 year old gives me a run for my money every day. God bless our military families!