And the Other One

Alexis was probably about Mila's age when I started with the endless questions, so at this point it's second nature. She can either voluntarily tell me how her day went, or I can ask probing questions until I get answers out of her. "How was your day?" "What was good about it?" "What was the worst part of your day?" "What did you do today that was different from other days?" and on and on. I have a whole list of ways of prying information out of that kid.

Fortunately, I don't really have to pry anymore. The second I pick Alexis up after school, she starts giving me the play-by-play of all of the things. It works out quite splendidly, I must say.

But it gets better. I never imagined it would happen, but somehow Mila has picked up on the whole thing. For the past few months, she has also started spilling it when she gets in the car. I wouldn't have noticed, but she instigates.

"Ask me what I do today?" she'll say. That's my cue that I screwed up and forgot to ask her, so she had to tell me to do it. Which, awesome. So I ask "What did you do today?" and she spews a bunch of information.

I know when she played outside. I know when she didn't like her snack. I know who did what, including the low-down on who is doing a great job with potty training and who is standing on the sidelines in solidarity with Miss No Thank You. It rules.

Today went exactly like every other day lately, except that for some reason pets were on the top of Mila's thought list. She felt that she had to tell me that she has two dogs and three cats they all like to eat and blah, blah, blah. Mila listed a whole bunch of details about her perspective on the lives of cats and dogs.

I decided to extend the conversation with some questions. I asked her to name the dogs, which went as expected. "There's Penny and Cody. Penny is bad."

That's a true statement, right there. Penny doesn't just make bad choices, she is legit BAD. Often.

And then I asked Mila to list the cats. "There's Max. He's my favorite. Keeeey-arr-uh." The way Mila pronounces Kiara's name is basically the best, for what it's worth. And then she listed the third cat.

"And the other one."

We should have just named Ali Cat "The Other One" because that's the truthiest thing ever right there.

Diana's Biggest Fans, Right Here

Step One in getting me to do things that make no sense is to clean the entire living room without being asked. Step Two is to remind me at JUST the right time. The right time, for the record, is when I'm searching for a bridge because a certain toddler has found her Annoying Gene. Good grief, that kid can turn it on when she's in the mood. While she was performing some expert-level psychological warfare, Alexis slyly mentioned that she had been super helpful and there.

There it is.

That's how it came to be that I took Alexis to see Wonder Woman on Friday night.

There are several things wrong with that whole situation. I don't do movies. It's not an exaggeration to say that I've seen maybe 5 of them in the past several years, as long as you exclude Disney movies. They don't count for all of the obvious reasons, but mostly because they're short. I can handle about 90 minutes of sitting and staring at a screen, and even that is a stretch. I also don't do superhero anything because *yawn*. Look, it's awesome that you have seen every superhero everything that has come out in recent years, but while you were doing that, I was doing absolutely anything else because *YAWN*. Not my thing. Oh, and that "Friday night" thing? WHAT IS THAT? I like to do exactly one thing on Friday nights and that is collapse in a puddle of tired.

I go to bed earliest on Friday nights. It's because by the time we get to Friday, I'm toast.

So THAT is how difficult Mila was behaving on Friday. She was behaving so ridiculously that I volunteered to take Alexis to do something I didn't want to do at a time when I'm better off sleeping.

And that was the plan. I figured that if I took Alexis to the movie, I would get to take a nap while she happily blissed out.

It didn't work out that way. It turns out that it's not that I don't like superhero movies, it's that I don't like bad superhero movies. I stop paying attention after a few minutes because they're boring and awful and predictable.

Wonder Woman is a little predictable, but there's nothing awful about it.

Basically, I stayed up past midnight to watch a movie that I would happily pay to watch again and again. it was SO good, you guys.

The best part, though. The best part was a moment during butt-kicking sequence number 18. I happened to glance over at Alexis, who has declared it the best movie ever, and her face.

You guys, her face.

I've never looked to movies for strong female leads because it's just not my thing. It never occurred to me that they're ... missing. Later Alexis and I talked about it, and when she asked if I could think of a single movie with a strong female lead not made by Disney, I couldn't. (They may exist - remember, I don't do the movie thing often.) She couldn't think of one either. Disney Princesses are in many ways the only strong female leads Alexis has seen on the big screen.

So I suppose that explains her face. It was filled with a look of wonder and joy that I've not seen before. It was the face of someone who is seeing something she previously thought impossible. And while it is all fiction, it very clearly left her with dreaming of all of the nonfiction possibilities.

Strawberry Cupcakes

There are six flavors of cake that I can make without any thought required at all. I've made them from scratch so many times that I just *know* what to do.

Strawberry is not on that list.

So, go ahead and guess what kind of cake Mila wanted for her birthday cupcakes! Strawberry, of course!

It took me a few tries to get this right, but I finally did. Alexis declared that they were "ZOMG SO GOOD!" so I guess that's all that needs to be said.

Strawberry Cupcakes

2 cups fresh strawberries - cleaned, hulled, and sliced
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. You're making 24 cupcakes, so place liners in pans accordingly.

2. In a small saucepan, heat the strawberries over medium heat. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Smash them with a fork as they soften. They're done when you have a thick strawberry goop. Toss the goop in the fridge while you work on the rest of the stuff.

3. Dry ingredients, ahoy! Toss the flour, salt, and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

4. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on low to medium speed. Add in the eggs and mix some more. Add the vanilla and mix even more.

5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix away as you do it. You're going to end up with something that is too thick to be a cake batter, which is exactly as it should be because you still need to add the strawberries you cooked. So do that!

6. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

8. The obnoxious Trolls decor is optional, but Mila highly recommends it.