There's a Spring in My Step

Psssst ... I have a secret!

Shhhhh. Be very quiet ...

I MADE MY LAST EVER DAYCARE PAYMENT HUZZZZZZAAAAAH!

Ahem.

I guess if that's going to be a secret, I probably shouldn't yell it so loud? BUT YOU GUYS. While there are  summer camps and activities and all of the things that make big kids more expensive than little kids around the corner waitign for me, still! I'm done paying someone to hang out with my baaaaby while I work all year round! HUUZZZZZAHHH!

I might be excited about this.

While Mila is absolutely worth every penny of the $45,000+ total I spent on daycare over the past five years, and while her care providers have been fantastic, let's back up. $45,000. That's not an exaggeration. That's a lot of money is what that is. I could have bought a REALLY nice car with all of that. Instead, I bought safety, playtime, and learning time for a sassy little blond kid who today threatened to take away my cell phone if I don't take her on a Disney cruise soon.

True story.

Do you know how many Starbucks lattes I could have bought with that money? Over 7,000! For real! Someday when Mila reads these words, I hope she realizes that I love her more than I love 7,000 lattes. It's real close, but I do.

What is $45,000 in Disney vacations? Two? Three? (I joke ... it's probably 8 or 9, as long as you don't eat while you're there.)

It's four Steak-n-Shake franchises.

It's 3,000 pairs of jeans from Target.

It's a really nice down payment for a house.

It's 135,000 Cow Tales. Have I mentioned that I'm addicted to Cow Tales lately? I totally am.

So while I'm a wee bit sad that the tiny baby who was just born is headed off to kindergarten soon, I'm not sad to slam the checkbook closed and say ALL DONE!

They Need Something

The struggle is very real, y'all.

Mila wants to go to a Pirates game. She has been asking all summer, but I have been ignoring her request because ... if you are in Pittsburgh, you don't need me to explain. It just seems so wrong to give team ownership any money when they are doing such a spectacular job of reminding us that they can't be trusted with our money.

But she wants to go.

She doesn't care that they are AWFUL. Mila goes to baseball games for the ice cream, playground, and general people watching. She also just plain likes to do anything near downtown Pittsburgh. Whether or not there is an actual game being played is irrelevant to Mila, which is good since the Pirates haven't shown up to play since before the All Star break.

For the record, I will give in before the season ends. One game and exactly one game is in her future ... Eventually ... Maybe on a day when the giveaway is sufficient to make me feel like it was worth going. I haven't told Mila that I plan to let her have her way, but I do.

Thus, we ended up in the dead-end conversation about going to a game AGAIN. We've had that conversation about 13510394 times this summer. She asks to go, I tell her they aren't very good but we can go do something else fun instead, she insists we should go. It's all very circular, as are many things in the mind of a 5-year old.

Yesterday, though. Yesterday Mila broke the loop. When I explained they weren't very good so we could do something else, Mila replied, "Mom, I have to go to a game so I can tell them to play good enough for me to go to more games! THEY NEED ME THERE!"

It's really hard to argue with that logic.

You Can't Have Any Whining. Mila Has It All.

I'm clinging to the last threads of summer like you would a favorite pair of faded, ripped up jeans. I'm just not ready to let go. Fall may be a spectacular reunion of sweaters and pumpkin spice and evenings around a fire pit, but summer has my heart. I want to summer so hard that I can't summer anymore.

So I took the girls on a very Pittsburgh adventure last week. They had doctors appointments in the morning, but then we ventured downtown for a little Gateway Clipper and Incline action. Somehow, Mila had never done either of those things. I must be Pittsburghing wrong? I guess? I feel like I have slighted the kid somehow, but no more! She has now done the Pittsburgh things, all the way down to eating at Primanti Brothers.

The Gateway Clipper tour was a particularly good lesson on why precisely I tend to "forget" to take Mila to do things. BECAUSE SHE SUCKS. I mean, she's adorable and fantastic and OMG SHE CAN WHINE. I know I've mentioned it before, but there are days when she jumps aboard her Whine-a-sawki and flies down the road whining so much I, the non-drinker, start to dream of wining. She can whine circles around anyone.

There was a point when I glared at her and thought about throwing her off the boat. I wouldn't actually do it, of course, but just thinking about it made me feel better. She whined that she was hot. She whined that it was too windy. She whined that she was hungry, which HAHAHAHAHA I had just paid $12 for her to have a very specific lunch because she wouldn't accept anything else. And by "just" I mean we ate, walked 15 feet, and got on the boat. It could not have possibly been more than 10 minutes from the time I said "Are you sure you're done?" until she declared, "I'm sooooo hungry!"

Mila whined about the sun being too bright. She whined that her chair wasn't comfortable. She whined that she wanted to walk around. She whined that her feet hurt and she needed to be carried. She whined and whined and whined and frankly that's the only thing I remember about that entire one-hour boat road. We may have seen some of Pittsburgh's best spots and may have heard some interesting facts about the city we love, but I don't remember. It all ceased to exist because Mila was riding her Whine-a-sawki.

She was slightly better for the incline. There were still some requests to be carried, but then I made ice cream appear and Mila was all sorts of okay with her life. She and her sister explored the overlooks, took pictures of the skyline, and generally did the things that kids should do when exploring Pittsburgh.

Eventually we returned home and it was time to tuck Mila in for a good night's sleep. As I often do, I asked her what her favorite part of the day had been. I expected to hear about the incline or the ice cream or some other little detail that made her happy, but no. No, Mila's favorite part of the whole day was ... "riding on the boat."

I don't understand. Explain this to me. If you are geniunely enjoying an experience, WHY WOULD YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH TO WHINE NON-STOP? WHY? I AM SO CONFUSED.

Apparently whining is how Mila shows appreciation. I think maybe I'd like to enter a phase where we stop that. Can we do it now? How about now? NOW? PLEEEEEASE?