Only One of My Kids Needs Me

Step by step.

(Sorry if I just planted a terrible NKOTB ear worm in your head. Except, NOT SORRY BECAUSE NKOTB. Ahem.)

We are building a patio step. by. step.

Right now we've got about 25% of what we need. We can figure out a way to make that work, but it sure would be nice to get further.

Let's make an amazing space for Center for Victims.

Keep it coming.

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It was truly a long weekend, especially the part where we once again piled in the car, drove six hours, and attended a wedding. If you're keeping score at home, that makes three in the past five weeks. That also makes THE LAST ONE, DO YOU HEAR ME, FAMILY? I am declaring a ban on weddings for at least one year, or until Mila learns that she can sit in the car for hours without making sounds that threaten life on earth.

There are hundreds of people who lost their hearing in Columbus following a terrible, high-pitched scream that rang out last weekend. I maaaaaybe know how that all started.

ANYWAY.

The weekend capped off a particularly rough week for Mila. I know the why and OMG WHY ARE PEOPLE ALLOWED TO GO ON VACATION? I mean, people who purposely work with kids deserve all of the vacations, it's just that my kid sucks at dealing with substitutes. Girlfriend acted out like WOAH all week because her favorite teacher was on vacation.

Six hours in the car did not make it better.

The good news about Mila's terrible, no good, very bad week was that she super likes weddings. Thus, Saturday's admittedly fantastic festivities were exactly what she needed.

Especially the part where I didn't interact with her for hours.

There's a thing that happens when I have my camera in my hands. While everyone else's kids are all ::cheese:: and ::grin::, Mila is all ::RUUUUUUN::. She can hide that little face like it's something she has been practicing her entire life. Which it is. She either turns where I can't see her or glares at me with a RBF that would make any mother proud. So, when I pulled my camera out at the wedding, Mila went running as if her life depended on it.

She ran right into a cousin or twelve. That happens at our family gatherings because there are all of the cousins. SO many of them.

Mila ran into a cousin who happily entertained her. Then she ran into another one. And another one. She managed to go hours without being in my care and she did so by choice. I was hovering just in case, but every time Mila saw me, she snapped at me to get lost. She even pushed me away when I tried to be her friend.

Which, whatever. If my two-year old wants to declare herself so self-sufficient that she doesn't need her mother, fine. We'll see how far that gets her.

(It gets her to bedtime, by the way. When bedtime rolls around, the kid hates absolutely everyone who isn't me. I kinda hope it's still that way when she goes to college.)