There are a lot of weird things about the 8-year age gap, but one that smacked me in the face over the weekend was that the Big Kid dictates how our time is spent a LOT. Between cheer and sleepovers and swimming parties and all of the things she managed to do between Friday and Sunday, it was like Mila was an afterthought.
Which, well ... she doesn't complain when she gets drug to all of her sister's things, so ...
Somewhere between Mila happily entertaining herself while Alexis was on a football field cheering and Mila NOT AT ALL HAPPILY ENTERTAINING HERSELF OMG ::PassesOutFromToddlerInducedExhaustion::, I decided the holiday would be a day spent laboring to make sure Mila did something fun. For her. All her. Screw the Big Kid, she would have to sit back and entertain herself for a change.
Hello, Water Stairs.
The plan: Alexis would sit around and watch her sister have fun. Paybacks and all of that.
The reality: Go ahead and guess.
I can't get a decent photo of both of the girls to save my life, so you'll have to trust me on this. They BOTH had fun.
Mila had fun in a "no way are these people going to let me play in the water while wearing real clothes OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING THEY AREN'T STOPPING ME SPLASH" sort of way. Alexis had fun in a slightly more subdued way, but go ahead and guess which one was easier to drag away from the water when the time arrived to move on to the next thing in our day.
I'm just going to plan the next few weekends around Mila activities. Apparently big kids can have fun doing anything the little kids will do.