Mila the Marvelous

Welp.

I screwed up and blinked again. Suddenly, this girl? This girl is 15 months old.

15 months happens to be the exact age when all hell breaks loose, in my experience. It's the age when tiny people figure out that communicating is a thing. While they all go through that process in very different ways and at very different speeds, they KNOW. They know that they want things and that you should be able to provide and why don't you know that when they flick a finger to the left and blink three times that it means they want the fourth noodle from the left on the plate of food that you tried to serve yesterday? You should totally know that.

Fortunately, Mila is doing a decent job of using words and signs to convey what she's after. There's definitely some frustration on both sides of things, but for the most part she knows that saying "please" or signing eat or more will get her somewhere. She also signs or says sissy, sit, up, yes, shoes, and a bunch of other helpful things.

My favorite thing she currently says, however, is "thank you." If you are a grown-up who has not figured out to say "thank you" when given something, I have a 15 month-old who would like to teach you a lesson or ten. Hand the kid food, drink, the stuffed animal she was looking at, or even a rock and she will say "thank you."

It's pretty adorable.

Also, rocks are a lot more awesome than you would expect.

Along with being awesomely polite, Mila is also showing signs of being a bit ... well ... neurotic.

Mila cannot walk past something on the floor. By "something" I mean trash or a toy or anything that isn't in the place where it belongs. For example, her bath toys were left sitting on the floor outside of the bathtub early last week. Mila toddled up to the toys at OMG GO TO BED O'CLOCK, said "uh oh," and then proceeded to pick the toys up. She stood there holding them all saying "uh oh" over and over until I took them from her and put them where they belong. Then she said "thank you" and toddled to her bedroom like an obedient little thing.

She's not an obedient little thing. Sometimes she pretends, though.

I have no doubt where this "can't walk by a mess without stopping to pick it up" thing came from, but HOOBOY am I paying a price for letting that apple knock me in the knees as it fell from the tree.

You guys, I'm going to need the public at large to do a better job of picking up. That shirt you knocked off the rack at the store? I had to stop and pick it up so that the Tiny Human didn't blow a gasket.

You know how you dropped that French fry on the floor at lunch the other day? I had to clean that up, too.

Which one of you threw a straw wrapper on the ground at the playground? That became my problem, I'll have you know.

Oh, and whoever is responsible for the flecks of black that are built into the floor tiles at the mall owes me. Big time. I've lost a lot of time to trying to convince Mila that they aren't garbage on the floor that needs to be picked up.

Still, even with all of those delays in life, there are far worse things than raising a tiny neat freak.

I can't wait until she starts yelling at her slob sister for leaving dirty clothes all over the house.

Grilled Tofu Tacos

I've reached the denial stage of things, so I'm pretending summer isn't coming to an end. Nope. No way. It's only just begun. So, let's grill!

Grilled tofu tacos, of course.

The thing about grilled tacos is that you can put a bunch of stuff in bowls, set it on the table, and tell everybody to make their own taco with whatever they want in it. Any time I can reduce the amount of whining about what is or is not for dinner is a good time.

Grilled Tofu Tacos

1 package extra firm tofu, pressed and sliced into strips
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 red pepper
1 avocado
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 can black beans, rinsed and rained
Soft tortilla shells
Shredded cheddar jack cheese
Salsa

1. In a large Ziploc bag, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, and chili powder and shake them up a bit. Toss the tofu in the bag and toss some more.

2. Once the tofu is well-coated, place it on the grill. You're going to need to grill it over medium to high heat until you have lovely grill lines on each side of the tofu. It takes me about ten minutes per side, but times will vary wildly since grills vary wildly.

3. While you're slaving over the grill, toss the red pepper on there, too. I think the easiest way to grill it is to cut it into four to six pieces and grill on each side until you're happy with how soft it is. Once it's done, cut it into smaller pieces.

4. Chop up that avocado.

5. Put everything in bowls on the table and step back. Instruct the natives to put together their own dinner.

6. Enjoy the lack of whining as they skip or add extra of whatever they want. For example, Alexis skips the red peppers but goes double on the avocado and tofu. 

Poppins. Mary Poppins.