Day One Hundred Eighty-Two

Day One Hundred Eighty-One

In the short few weeks since I (nearly) finished the pond, Mila legit declared the whole thing hers. She spends every minute possible by the side of that water, leaning over the water, and probably in the water because she is a determined Frog Hunter. It's no exaggeration - she really does spend hours per day catching and releasing frogs.

The frogs started to tire of the game late last week. Not only has it become much harder for Mila to catch a frog, they aren't sitting out in plain sight anymore at all. In fact, the second anybody opens our back door, you can hear dozens of little splashes as the frogs jump into the water just in case. They aren't scared of any of the big people, but what if it's the little blond terrorist that just slammed that door? It's best to hide. Better safe than sorry.

I can't get Mila to leave the frogs alone. I have tried and tried, but she puts what she wants waaaay ahead of what anyone thinks of her. The good news is that I don't have to worry about her caving to peer pressure when she's older. The bad news is that she really doesn't care how mad I get as long as she's doing whatever it is that makes her happy.

I can't wait until she starts spending her weekends dancing on tables in bars. It's going to be so great.

While getting Mila to leave the pond alone is a Herculean effort, I found a way. I took her little frog-chasing butt to the beach. It's a great chance for the frogs to get a break from being terrorized.

Except.

Except that it took Mila less than a few hours to find a frog hanging on the side of a fence outside of the beach house. Seriously. Apparently the Pittsburgh frogs did not send notice to the Virginia frogs to HIDE YOUR MOTHERS AND CHILDREN AND VALUABLES AND JUST HIDE. The Virginia frogs are still out trying to live the good life.

And Mila isn't going to leave them alone.

She found one within hours of being at the beach and has found at least one every day since.

The world can stop handing that kid gifts now. A little time without frogs would have been just fine.

Day One Hundred Eighty

Remember what 2020 was supposed to look like? It was supposed to be chaotic and full of trips to all corners of the world. Buried in those trips there was to be two national competitions because I'm one of THOSE parents and let my kid go to Dance Nationals and Cheer Nationals. This year was supposed to be Cape May and Austin, in fact.

Welp. That didn't happen.

That's the short explanation as to how it came to be that the year is winding down but I still had a lot LOT LOT of vacation days to use. On top of that, the girls are both attending cyber school and ... Hey. Did you know that when your kids don't attend brick and mortar buildings, you can pretty much do whatever you want?

Yeah, we totally scheduled a beach vacation in the middle of a pandemic.

The thing is, it's definitely past the ideal time to hang out at the beach. The weather hasn't been perfect, but it has been good enough. The girls still have to do the school thing every day, but Alexis took a math class while standing in a pool today. I've had to attend a few work meetings, but in between I've been dragging my feet through the sand. It's a give a little, get a little situation.

And social distancing has never been easier. There's hardly anybody around.

Basically, what I'm saying is that if you want to forget there is a global pandemic while still staying quarantined with the people you consider to be in your bubble, do it by renting a house at the beach. I muchly recommend it.