Colorful

OKAY, NEW PLAN!

For about two weeks now, Mila's preschool has been having "color days." That's to say, they assign a particular color to each day and go all in on celebrating that color. They wear clothes with that color, they eat snacks that match, and they spend the whole day worshiping that particular shade of the rainbow. It's all very exciting if you happen to be a four-year old named Mila who loves a good party.

The best part is the "wear clothes that color." IT IS AMAZING. While it was a little challenging to find something orange or brown in Mila's closet on those days, there was no fighting! For two weeks, she has gotten dressed in the morning without making me roll my eyes 246913413 times!

It's so magical.

So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to fake like color days are continuing. It may become a permanent thing, even. I'm sure high school-aged Mila will be delighted to be told it's "Blue Day" and she should wear something blue. Even if she's not, I don't care because it's making my life SO much easier right now. We haven't fought about shoes. She's gotten dressed within minutes of being told to get dressed. She's in a hurry to get out of the house so she can show her friends that she has the right color on. Suddenly, the kid acts like she has places to be!

Don't anybody tell her when we cross into the fake color days. It would ruin my fun.

Baby Love

It's like clockwork. Each spring, I wander out to the driveway one morning and find myself under attack. For reasons that defy my understanding, each and every spring a bird builds a nest in the trees between our patio and driveway. Every year the bird acts surprised that there are humans nearby, but she sticks around anyway and lays eggs. And then yells at me every day for being near her nest.

Seriously. Every year. Sometimes more than once.

The trees aren't particularly tall - maybe 6 or 7 feet - so everything about it is odd. But FANTASTIC. We get a front row seat as the she lays her eggs, the eggs hatch, and the babies grow up and fly away.

Mila, of course, LOVES everything about the tradition. Her sister may be crazy about animals, but Mila is even worse. She loves absolutely every creature and she loves baby creatures twice. She "Awwwws" every time she sees a newborn bird, which is weird because they're hideous at first. It takes weeks for them to be cute.

They're cute in her eyes from day 1.

We check on the birds every morning. The mother is going to yell at me for existing, so I might as well earn that yelling by poking my nose in the tree and seeing what's going on. Mila joins in on this whole thing. It's pure joy.

This year the babies were robins. It turns out that robins grow up faster than some of our previous squatters. They were born on May 2nd.

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For Timehop’s sake.

A post shared by Burgh Baby (@burghbaby) on May 2, 2019 at 4:12pm PDT

And today they were in the midst of flying away forever when Mila and I checked on them.

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Just casually leaving forever.

A post shared by Burgh Baby (@burghbaby) on May 15, 2019 at 5:18am PDT

We stayed for a few minutes to watch as each of the three babies gathered up the courage to jump. One of the three was gone instantly while the other two struggled a bit, meandering their way down the driveway and around the shrubs next to the house. Momma bird watched and yelled the whole time. Eventually she calmed down but only after her babies figured out how to use those wings and fly.

But Mila.

Mila was SOBBING. She was so very sad that her baby birds flew away. She stayed upset all the way to school and then picked up on her sad mood again later in the evening.

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The baby birds flew away this morning. Mila has opinions about that. #morningthings

A post shared by Burgh Baby (@burghbaby) on May 15, 2019 at 5:16am PDT

The child was legitimately devastated that the baby birds left the nest.

In five years, her big sister is going to leave the nest. If her feelings about baby birds she just met are any indication, HOOBOY IS IT GOING TO BE ROUGH.

He's the Best. FIGHT ME.

Continuing with this story, first I need to clarify that the competition cheer that Alexis participates in is ... different. It's a non-profit organization and its goal is to make athletics affordable and accessible. The "franchise" started out in Michigan and is relatively new in Pennsylvania, but it's definitely growing. It's growing because it doesn't cost a zillion dollars. It has all of the challenges and many of the perks of expensive elite competitive cheer gyms, but we pay $50/month for the privilege of participating.

That's what it's all about, as far as I'm concerned. Privilege. Alexis has no idea how good she has it, so I try to give her small glimpses. I'm eternally grateful that she doesn't totally "get it," but giving her an opportunity to see that some high schoolers have to miss cheer practice because they have to go to work to pay for cheer practice is good. Besides, the kid is totally devoted to dance. She could not possibly do all of the dance things she wants to do AND cheer if it weren't for this program. It's only two hours per week and fits with her schedule while not costing all of the money.

So, we have a great coach, but we don't have jackets at the end of competitions. There are no "free" t-shirts, but the routines are difficult. The bow is cheap, the hair isn't as big (...because it's their real hair), they make do with whatever shoes they have, but they still look "put together." The girls who participate are far more diverse than what I've seen with other gyms, and that's not just about what you can see. The socio-economic backgrounds are varied. The levels of commitment are varied. These aren't girls who are spending their every waking moment fighting to be the best.

Because sometimes they're waging other battles.

Without getting into details of peoples' personal lives, let's leave it at one girl lost her mother to cancer this year. Another is part of an effort to start a new life in a new country. There's a girl who has survived the unthinkable. There are multiple girls who won't ever have the resources to go to college. None of it matters. The playing field is leveled when they're on the mat.

Together, they're focused on getting to Nationals and doing well while they're there.

But first they have to raise the money to pay for the trip.

So, back to that day spent standing outside Walmart begging strangers for money. It's always a good little project that results in good things. Mila yelling on behalf of her sister upped the game a good deal this year. But then we left and we totally missed the best part.

I wasn't there for it, but the story goes that a man started to walk past the girls who were on the later shift. They did their thing and asked for a donation and said man was all, "Sure!"

He dropped $900 in their little bucket. No questions asked. He just reached into his pocket and grabbed some kindness then passed it on to some girls who could use some kindness.

It was Juju Smith-Schuster. As in, THAT Juju.

Just imagine how generous he would have been if Mila had been the one holding the bucket.