Two years into this thing called life, Mila's personality hasn't changed much. She is who she has always been and she has always been a cute little Mowgli who turns into a Gremlin at night.
Don't feed her after midnight. I'm telling you, ugly things happen.
Unfortunately, the transformation from cute and cuddly to beast happens before midnight. In fact, it happens at about 8:00 pm every night. Mila goes from sweet and easy-going to RAAAWRRR in a flash. Once she has turned into a Gremlin, the only human who can calm the beast within is me.
Still.
Always.
When she's in college and I have to go visit every night so that she doesn't haul off and deck somebody, we'll consider it a problem. For now, it's mostly manageable. It just means I'm the one who puts her to bed every night.
It's unusual for us to be away from home when the witching hour starts, so I don't have a lot of data about what happens when 8:00 strikes and bedtime isn't close behind. I was really very sure that I was going to find out the hard way that the answer was DISASTER this past weekend. Not only did a wedding mean she would be out past 8:00 pm, there was a time zone difference that made everything even later than the clocks claimed.
The meltdown should have happened at 7:00 Tennessee time. The kid should have turned into a beast who would only allow me to make eye contact with her. That happened to be right when the Pens game was set to start, so I figured she could join me at watching the game from a TV outside of the wedding reception.
Except, when I went to go catch some of the game, Mila seemed to be content with a relative. So I left her behind with instructions to hunt me down if her ears started to seem pointier than normal.
An entire period of the game went by and I didn't see the beast. In fact, I didn't see her cranky little face until it was a good hour past bedtime. Even odder, when the Gremlin came to visit, the Gremlin was all, "Wait, what? You're watching the game? Do you realize that there is a party happening inside? I WANT TO BE AT THE PARTY."
She took one look at me, decided she was content with knowing where I was, and then insisted she get to go back inside with whoever was willing to take her.
She repeated her "I want my mommy" then "Never mind. Party time!" routine every 15 minutes or so through the duration of the game. The kid wanted visual contact from time-to-time, but PARTY. She couldn't miss the party. There was dancing and lights and PARTY, PEOPLE.
She who has stayed very consistent with her personality set the precedent that she is willing to put partying as her #1 priority no matter the situation. That sure is going to make college a lot of fun ...
