Day Ninety-Nine

 Every cell in Mila's body woke up needy today. From the moment her eyes opened until she finally fell asleep hours later, she needed me. All of me. Constantly. She spent her day crawling in my lap, tugging on my clothes, and whining.

OMG, the whining.

I don't know what it was that made that kid turn from so independent I sometimes questioned if she was going to smother me in my sleep with a pillow to ... whatever today was, but HOOBOY. The girl was challenging and then some today. It's a good thing I wasn't trying to work or anything. Ahem.

ANYWAY.

I was struggling to deal with the neediness because the other kid is the neediest kid in the world. There cannot be two of them. There was yelling and fussing and a general, "OMG, PLEASE STOP TOUCHING ME" thing going on. I'm not at all proud of how very impatient I turned towards the end.

But then Mila curled up in my lap and proclaimed, "I'm just really sleepy," and suddenly it wasn't so bad. So we chatted a bit about what was going on how I hope tomorrow is a better day. We planned a few activities so Mila will have something to look forward to, but also figured out which movie she can watch in the morning so she doesn't interrupt my meetings. It was all sorts of fine and dandy.

And then I asked one last question. "Mila, why did you need me so much today?"

"You're really just the best mom ever," was her reply.

And that is why she'll be getting a pony tomorrow.

Day Ninety-Eight

Global pandemic or not, Mila is definitely too young for me to drop her off at a friend's house for a birthday party. I have to stay, even when the so-called party is only two friends and they're really well curated and screened friends.

Mila makes bad choices sometimes. I need to be around to act as the bumpers at the bowling alley. I can't fix everything, but I can keep an eye out and generally guide Mila in the right direction.

So that happened on Saturday. Mila's best friend's birthday was this weekend and instead of having an actual party, she hosted a playdate with her two favorite friends. There was cake and presents and, I gotta say, this is one upside to the pandemic. I kinda like this smaller, less-stressful party thing. It seems like the kids might have had more fun, too. Small, focused groups play better together, I swear it.

Mila had A LOT of fun swimming and running and jumping on a bounce house thing.

Too much fun.

I let her stay for over five hours. FIVE HOURS. There is no other birthday in the history of birthdays when I've let one of my kids hang at a party for that long. It was a gift brought to Mila by the fact that I didn't really want to go home and face all of the yard work that I still have to do. It was hot, she was happy and only a little nutty, it seemed like a good time to just hang out.

But all good things have to come to an end. I warned Mila of that fact several times, complete with a 30-minute warning, a 15-minute warning, etc. LOTS OF WARNINGS.

This particular friend lives in our neighborhood. She's maybe seven or eight houses away, in fact. Do you want to guess how long Mila can scream that she wants her friend? At the top of her lungs? ALL THE WAY HOME. Do you know how terrible I looked hauling a screaming kid through our neighborhood?

Oh, yeah. I'm classy all right.

She screamed for another hour after she was home. Just for good measure.

So if you're wondering why I won't let the kid go to parties anymore, it's actually NOT because of the pandemic or because I need to stay. It's because SHE WON'T LEAVE OMG.

Day Ninety-Seven

Hi, my name is Michelle and I am a grilled pizza-aholic.

But you knew that, given that I've posted about it eleventy bajillion times.

I'm escalating with my obsession, though. Now I'm crazed about dessert pizzas just as much as I am about delicious mozzarella-topped pizzas. First there was the Grilled Strawberry Pizza. Now there's this.

Yeah. S'mores. On a pizza crust.

It's a special sort of beautiful.

Grilled S'more Pizza

4 Precooked grilled pizza crusts (see recipe here)
4 tablespoons peanut butter
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 graham cracker, crushed

1. Cook those pizza crusts on both sides.

2. Spread a layer of peanut butter on one side of the cooked pizza crust.

3. Smash a handful of marshmallows on top. The peanut butter will help them stick.

5. Toss some chocolate chips on next.

6. Put the pizza on the grill and let it cook until the chocolate chips are melty and the marshmallows fluff up. It takes about three minutes on our grill when it's turned on medium.

7. Top the pizza with some crushed graham crackers.

8. Share your deliciousness with a friend and then ask them for more grilled dessert pizza ideas. So far we have tried Strawberry Banana, Nutella Banana, Chocolate Caramel, and Peach. There were no bad choices in there. Not a single one.