That's How You Say "Thank You"

One of my favorite thing about toddlers is that they're so darn thankful. It's not that the Big Kid doesn't show gratitude, by the way. It's more that I'm ignoring her these days because if I ignore her, she can't possibly finish fifth grade. Life is better when I keep her little by pretending this whole end of the school year thing doesn't exist.

ONWARD! Grateful toddlers, man. They're so darn cute.

Mila will say "thank you" for just about anything lately. You could hand her a dead bug and she'd be grateful because she'd consider it permission to rip its legs out. Fortunately, I don't have to resort to those sorts of levels because she's grateful about good stuff, too.

Her birthday cake.

Ignoring the fact that my kids both take for granted my magical ability to make almost-decent looking cakes appear out of nowhere, Mila was pretty stoked to discover there was a Wonder Woman cake in the kitchen for her birthday. I have offered her that exact Wonder Woman doll approximately every time we've gone to Target lately and she didn't want it, but once I doused the thing in seventeen pounds of cream cheese frosting, she was AWESOMENESS.

Lighting candles made her better, of course. Because fire. Mila loves fire.

But cream cheese frosting is better. While I think I would rank fire a little higher, Mila is all CREAM CHEESE FROSTING OMG.

Especially the yellow stuff. It might be exactly the same as the blue stuff, but don't bother trying to explain that. Mila says yellow is superior and thusly she stole every yellow frosting star she could find.

Or maybe she was marking her territory? It's hard to tell sometimes.

Anyway, it has been two days since the Wonder Woman cake first made its appearance. Mila has drug the doll from the Wonder Woman cake everywhere for those two days and if you try to take her away, Mila will scold you. "I just wuv her. I need her."

It's the best.

The other thing that's the best is that what's left of the cake can still bring all the love from Mila. I mean, don't even look at what's left of the yellow stars because she will destroy you, but the cake itself? It's happiness.

I'm guessing that's why I found Mila standing in the fridge with her face buried in it earlier today. Literally, she was no-hands chowing down. Like a dog.

I love toddler gratitude. It's the best.