She Drives a Hard Bargain

Because life can never be simple, the solar cover for our pool died a tragic death somewhere back on one of those rainy days. No, not THAT rainy day, one of the others. Don't ask me to remember exactly which rainy day because THEY HAVE ALL BEEN RAINY.

Ahem.

The lack of a solar cover means that when it was finally sunny and warm this weekend, the pool was not. ::SadTrombone:: One of these days I'll find an economical heater that will solve this whole problem, but for now we're reliant on the sun and basically I FAIL, OKAY?

Mila was pissed.

She woke up ready to swim and was devastated to learn that the pool was somewhere between "No, thank you" and "OH, HELL NO." It was cold. So cold. All the tiny little girl wanted to do was to swim all day and she couldn't.

So I took her to a playground. Every playground, in fact.

We've decided this is going to be our thing. We are going to try out every playground we can find. It will make for a nice little tour of Pittsburgh, with a lot of focus on the places with all of the slides and swings. At least Mila agrees with this plan in theory. In reality, getting her to leave a playground requires payment. ALL OF THE PAYMENT.

I don't even know where we were on Saturday. It was a random playground that Alexis found via the Google Maps app. It was nice enough and the girls both had a ton of fun, but getting Mila to leave was IMPOSSIBLE. I offered her cash, prizes, and my first-born son but she was having none of it. I had to literally drag her away kicking and screaming, and even then she ran back to the playground the second her feet touched the ground.

So I started getting serious about the bribery.

"I'll give you $10. Let's go."

"No."

"You can pick out a treat at Target. We need to leave."

"I want to stay here."

"We can go get ice cream. Come on!"

"I don't want ice cream."

"Mila, what do I have to do to get you to get in the car?" You know I had to be desperate at that point because it's a terrible idea to offer the world up to a 5-year old.

"You have to let me swim in the pool when it's warm."

OKAY. THAT I CAN DO.

Nobody tell her she was going to get her way whether she left peacefully or not. Shhh!