Life Comes at You Fast

The thing about kids growing up is that you never notice when an Important Thing happens for the last time. For example, I can't remember the last time Mila crawled. She slowly learned to prefer walking and then one day she just didn't crawl anymore, but I didn't notice until several weeks after. I don't know when Alexis stopped saying "betchtubles" or when Mila stopped sleeping on her belly and, man. There's so much I didn't notice as it happened.

I definitely didn't notice when Alexis graduated from choosing Kid Movies to picking Tween/Teen Movies. One week she picked out a Disney cartoon when given a choice, and the next she had graduated to a annoyingly sweet high school romance flick.

THE HELL?

I don't remember giving her permission to be more interested in watching actual humans kissing than animated dogs.

The most recent coming of age movie to make its way into our house was Love, Simon. It was very much so your stereotypical teen flick, with a bit of a modern twist. It wasn't all that different from 10 Things I Hate About You or She's All That or any number of movies. Two people fall in love, somebody has some growing up to do, somebody makes a mistake that hurts someone else, and it all comes together in the end.

Have I mentioned that 10 Things I Hate About You is the greatest movie of all time? Because I should mention that. It's not a debatable topic, frankly, and even Alexis will agree. She has watched that movie at least 10 times by now. Heath Ledger holds up, you guys.

Speaking of Heath Ledger, remember that thing? That thing where the lead guy in those type of movies made you raise your eyebrow? Because HELLO. I mean, Freddie Prinze, Jr. was never really my sort of thing but Chad Michael Murray was a gift. And Heath. Heath will forever hold a special place in my heart.

So Alexis and I were sitting and watching Love, Simon and it occurred to me that she was probably thinking things about the lead character. It doesn't matter what team he plays on in the movie; the cute boy is the cute boy when you're her age.

And then Josh Duhamel came on the screen and suddenly I was thinking things. You know, things like, "Hi, Josh! It's so nice to see you!"

AND THEN ... OMG WTF ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Josh Duhamel plays the dad in the movie. HE IS THE GROWN ASS ADULT FATHER FIGURE. When did that happen? When did the grown ass adult become the one who caught my attention? How is it that I'm of the age where a teen flick's PARENTAL FIGURE is what catches my attention?

I mean ...

I just ...

Ugh.

The parent of a teenager in a teen flick. WTF.

If you'll excuse me, I need to go buy a cane and some Werther's and prepare myself for the first time it's a grandfather that catches my attention. That should happen right around the time Mila discovers teen flicks, I suppose.

::SOB::

Worth the Sweat

There's no real explanation for why I thought the 4th of July would be a good day to dig a big hole, but I did. I woke up and suddenly was beyond annoyed that the big waterfall in our pond hadn't worked in a year. Well, it worked, but it worked by letting water pour out of the pond and into the yard and THAT IS A PROBLEM.

That problem has been there pretty much for all of history. For as long as the pond has been in our back yard, that waterfall has leaked just a little bit. Two years ago a "little bit" turned into "kinda a lot" and we were refilling an inch or two of water every day. Which is dumb. And, thus, I spend weeks tearing the whole thing apart last summer. I very carefully reconstructed the whole thing and then watched as the Really Expensive Pond Tape that I used to shore up the liner by the waterfall disintegrated instantly. As in, the pond was fixed for exactly one hour. Then it went back to leaking worse than ever before.

So I unplugged the pump and walked away and swore I was never going to care about anything ever again.

I lasted all the way to the July 4th of this year - nearly 9 months later. And then I suddenly HAD to fix it. You know what's a solid idea? Digging a giant hole when it's 95 degrees outside. So smart. But I woke up with a plan so I had to make good on it.

My plan, by the way, was to make the pond bigger. I originally wanted to make the bottom bigger because I want to be able to see the fish better, but then I realized I could use that same idea to put the waterfalls in the pond. Anyway, long story short, IT WORKED! I have only put about 1/2 inch of water in the pond in the past week, and it's been HOT. There have also been approximately 389517394 birds bathing in the top of the pond and splashing water out, so that is very definitely a win.

Do you know how nice it is to not refill a pond daily? IT'S SO GREAT.

More important, though, is that I decided to create a little spot for a certain small person. As much as she's a nut, I somehow trust Mila to have a little ledge where she can reach the water.

Want to guess how very happy she is with this development?

I still need to finish making everything pretty (and hide the waterfall boxes), but it's pretty much perfect with happy little Mila sitting there.

A Prediction

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when Anthrocon week would have meant a total halt to life. Spending a bunch of evenings hanging out with friends was an absolute priority because ZOMG SO FUN.

Alas, the rest of Pittsburgh figured the same thing out. At this point, I think half the population of the city stands on the corner by the Westin and parties with the furries. Which, that's cool. I'm glad everyone is able to have fun. I ... just need to check out.

There's too many people there now. It's chaos. And not the kind of chaos that I enjoy.

The girls, though. Alexis has been going to Anthrocon for as long as she can remember. You better believe she will insist on going to see her favorite cat and ferret and all sorts of other things. Mila is even more focused on the fun. I managed to get that kid to behave about 246130945130 times simply by reminding her we were going to see the "big animals in Pittsburgh."

And so we went to the fursuit parade. It's an all-out event these days, with over 1900 participants and lots of roads blocked off and, man, it's a LEGIT parade. It's a legit parade which both girls LOVE. Alexis video taped half of it while Mila spent the whole thing being Happy with a Capital H. She gave furries high-fives, she waved, she pointed, she smiled, she laughed, and she even got a stuffed fish as a gift from one of the furries. Considering that she's sleeping with that fish right this second, I think she likes it. A lot.

Mila's favorite part, though, was when she figured out that some of the furries are kids. For some reason, it blew her mind to see someone just a little older than she is donning a fursuit. She was positively gleeful each and every time a little kid walked past.

Which led to Alexis' realization. We were walking around downtown after the parade when Alexis turned and said, "Mila is totally going to be a furry. And I bet she makes me be the one who holds her tail and makes sure she doesn't trip on her own feet."

Sounds about right, Alexis.