She Is Definitely The Boss Of Me

It's one of those things that you don't notice when it happens. It just does. Then several months or years later, you think about it and realize that The Thing has happened.

In this case, I'm referring to Alexis being old enough to entertain herself in the car for hours and hours on end.

I don't know when that happened. One day she was terrible during long road trips. The next day she was thrilled to have the opportunity to stare at a tiny screen for hours on end. She was so thrilled, in fact, that she was shooosh. All the shooosh. We might notice her. We might take the screen away. SHHHHH!

The peace and quiet during a long drive was good while it lasted.

HI, MILA.

Mila has reset that peace and quiet in the car timer. She should care enough about electronics to entertain herself for hours on end approximately the day after never. Because OMG. She is fabulous when we're driving around locally, but she's a fruitcake when the car time extends too long.

If you were to have been forced to listen to the cacophony that was our recent drive to visit family, you would have heard giggling. So much giggling! But then there was the beautiful silence that comes with sleep. But then giggling! Oh, and did I mention that yelling/screaming/sobbing? BECAUSE THERE WAS THAT, TOO. OFTEN.

I mean, Mila is 18 months old. I expect her to have all of the opinions about being in the car for hours on end. BUT STILL. SO MUCH YELLING.

The last time we took a long road trip, an agreement of sorts was reached. The husband is very much so a "we're not stopping" kind of guy. I hope you have a bottle handle because seriously. NO STOPPING, NOT EVEN TO GO TO THE BATHROOM. I'm the opposite, by the way. I would rather stop and see things that look pretty. At the end of the day, stopping to see the great places between here and there might add half an hour. That price is worth it, IMHO. 

So the last time we went somewhere, Mr. I'm Not Stopping wouldn't stop. Mila made it very clear that she needed us to stop. There was much discussion. When Mila and I finally won the battle, a lesson was learned. When Mila says we need to stop, SHE MEANS IT. 

It was a messy situation. That's all I'll say about that.

But it led to that compromise. I only have to nag a few times before Tiny's demands are met. YAY!

Thus, road trip. Yelling! Yelling is bad. Let's stop! When we pulled over, the yelling stopped. As in, it stopped before anybody got out of the car. Just as the car would slow, Mila would be all "Never mind! I'm great!" 

So we would start driving again.

And she would start yelling again.

Until we slowed down.

Lather, rinse, and repeat.

Don't ever for a second think that just because a person is small, she can't rule her universe. 

Comments

[Belle]

Ha! When Sam was not quite 2 we drove around Oregon visiting family in a rental car with a carseat that was essentially a plastic bucket - not the Lexus of carseats that she was used to having her tush cradled in. She would fuss and cry and then learned lightning-fast that if she said "I pooped" she'd almost always get us to immediately pull over.