If you really think about it, this blog is nothing but a series of five-minute excerpts from our lives. It's not the full picture at all because I pick and choose which five minutes from the day make it here. That means you miss the moments like the ones when I want to run around screaming because TWEEN GIRLS OMG, which is sort of only fair since I probably shouldn't ruin her life by telling everyone about who she thinks is cute and which boy asked her out now and blah, blah, blah. Ugh.
But for as much as 5 minutes can't tell the whole story, sometimes 5 minutes does tell the whole story.
Mila.
Miss Mila. Her name is short for Mischievous If Left Alone, except that she doesn't actually need to be left alone to find mischief. I can be fully paying attention to her and sitting RIGHT there and she will still find a way to cause chaos.
This weekend, for example, I needed to wrap a few gifts. There are some people that we exchange with after the holidays, and I for sure don't have all of the preparations done for those late exchanges until I have no choice. As I sat on the floor pulling out the paper, Mila magically appeared. Of course. If there's a situation to insert herself into, she will find it.
My little helper started by grabbing each of the candles I was trying to wrap one at a time so she could smell them. Except, she kept grabbing the one I was actively trying to wrap, so it looked a little like a shell game. When Mila grew bored of that game, she somehow managed to get her grubby little fingers on the scissors.
The thing about Mila is that when she gets her grubby little hands on something she's not allowed to have, she turns into Jerome Bettis on the 7 yard line. She protects that thing like crazy as she barrels her way to the safety of the end zone. As I yelled, "NO RUNNING WITH SCISSORS!" I tackled her and put them up on a high shelf.
In the two seconds it took me to move the scissors to a high shelf, Mila grabbed the end of the tape and made herself a six-foot long "sticker." She wrapped it around a cat before I could steal it from her. Then, while I saved the cat, Mila climbed the shelves to reach the forbidden scissors.
"WE DON'T CLIMB WITH SCISSORS!" was met with a giggle and a tackle. While I fixed that moment, Mila ran over to the wrapping paper and started turning it into confetti. With a beautiful confetti party happening all over the floor, she decided to add some glitter, so she grabbed the ribbon garland on the Christmas tree and started shaking it.
Oh. Hi. My big Christmas tree? It's leaning. I think I may need to replace it because attempts at a repair haven't worked. Thus, the pulling of the ribbon? Was also the pulling of the entire tree in the general direction of the lean. Wanna see me panic? THAT WILL DO IT.
The tree somehow managed to stay upright, but only because I chased Mila off to her confetti party.
She found the tape again.
This time she made herself a scarf.
I pulled the scarf off of Mila, only to find myself all wrapped up in tape. While I tried to unstick myself, Mila ran off to the kitchen. She went straight to the junk drawer, which is handy because it happens to be where we keep the Chapstick. The kid is addicted to slathering an entire tube of Chapstick on her face in under three seconds. So, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
I grabbed a baby wipe to clean up Mila's face, but not before she had time to run back to the wrapping paper and start unwrapping the one thing I had managed to wrap.
She was a little disappointed when there wasn't a fun toy inside.
And on and on and on ...
It was just five minutes, but it very much so represents every minute of every day with Mila. It's everything that is challenging about her, but it's also everything that is fantastic about her.