Nothing. Beautiful Nothing.

I can count the number of times it has happened without taking off my shoes, so when Mila says, "Sit down," I sit down. It's a rare thing for her to decide it's time to snuggle, but dooooooo it. It's the best when she's in the mood.

That's all it took. The simple words, "sit down" and a tiny dimpled finger pointing at the couch. I sat down exactly as I was told and Mila promptly crawled into my lap and nuzzled in. A peaceful bliss settled in, but then was shattered as the Big Kid came crashing into the room.

"Hey! If there's going to be a girl party, I want in!" she said.

I made room.

We sat there for far longer than we should have, just the three girls, quietly enjoying being with one another. There was later a price to pay as I had a giant pile of things that had to be done after the girls went to bed, but oh well.

We snuggled on the couch. That's it.

Sometimes the best thing about a day (or week, or month ...) is that little window of time when you did nothing.

Up, Up, and Away

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was tethered to me. An invisible thread kept her within reach at all times, except I don't know why I'm using the past tense because that little girl is STILL tethered to me.

Alexis.

Alexis has spent all of her ten years trying to figure out how to get closer to me, no matter where I am. It's sort of magical when we're out in public. I can drift away from her and she will unwittingly move with me. Sometimes I mess with her when we're running errands. I'll walk an aisle away and then see how long it takes for her to magically appear.

It's never more than 5 seconds.

That kid has a built-in homing device. I swear it.

Mila, on the other hand, has no time for concern about my whereabouts. She has a world to discover and she can't be bothered with waiting for me to figure out which way she needs to go. Girlfriend is GONE. Always.

Which, in public? It's only sort of an issue. Awareness is key, of course. As long as I remember that she doesn't care where I am, I can remember to care where she is, and I can keep up. At home, though. WOOBOY.

Alexis started out with a lot of help in keeping track of me. We lived in a tiny townhouse until she was 3, so there wasn't anywhere to go. I could literally see her as long as we were on the same floor of the house, and we always were because Alexis.

Mila doesn't need to be on the same floor of the house. She also has about 2000 more square feet of house at her disposal. That means that there is no such thing as sitting on the couch and relaxing when Mila is on the loose. With a blink, she can go from the living room to climbing the bookshelves in the loft. Blink again and you'll find her crawling through the boxes in our storage room in our basement. Blink one more time and you'll find her locked in the playroom closet, surrounded by toys that she's not allowed to have.

I'd ask how she reaches the banned toys down from very high in the closet, but it's better that I not fully investigate that. Because MILA.

A photo posted by Burgh Baby (@burghbaby) on Dec 13, 2016 at 5:47pm PST

Guys, I don't know how to make the climbing stop. Even when everyone remembers to close all of the doors, Mila just opens the doors and finds a reason to go up. If I make a big deal out of the climbing, she does it more. I'm about to put all of the food in our pantry on the floor because what else is there to do?

She is going to climb.

She is going to take off for another room.

Always.

Which leads me to wonder why exactly I have a kid tethered to me when she could be tethered to her sister. At least then I would always know where the Tiny one was...

Christmas Crazy 2016. Volume Please.

Hi.

It's very nearly the middle of December. That means it's very nearly Christmas. There's this thing I like to do every Christmas, and that's to sit on a warm and cozy couch watching my girls smile from ear-to-ear as they play with their new toys. I sit on that couch and quietly watch them, knowing that all over Pittsburgh, there are other mothers doing the exact same thing.

The difference between me and those other mothers all comes down to luck. It's luck that has led me down the path that I'm on now. It's luck that allows me to walk the aisles of Target, carefully picking out toys, knowing that I have a safe home to return to once the selections are made.

Those mothers don't get a chance to walk the aisles of a store because those mothers are struggling as they search for a safe space. They're trying to provide for their children even as they fight for their own independence. Domestic violence doesn't pick on the people who "deserve it" - nobody deserves that fate. It picks the people who luck turned its back on.

They just want to give their kids a good Christmas.

You've made that happen every year since 2009. It's an incredible streak that I hope to never see end. Each year you make it possible for mothers all across Pittsburgh to wake up Christmas morning to smiles as their kids who have survived a violent situation discover that Santa has remembered them.

Santa is real. I've seen it. Every year since 2009, his spirit of giving has swept through my tiny corner of the internet.

We're at a little over $3500. Let's double that before the week ends.

Shop from the Amazon Wish List or throw a few dollars into Santa's sack.