She's The Best

Now that Mila has "graduated" from preschool, she moved over to a different room at daycare. It's a ratio thing, more or less, and basically just means she should be able to handle herself around older kids. She no longer gets lumped with 3 and 4-year olds, but instead she's in with kids ages 5 up to 2nd grade.

Given how she "handles" herself around her big sister, I think maybe the older kids should be scared. A lot scared.

ANYWAY.

That move means she is out of luck if she wants an afternoon nap. That doesn't seem like a big deal for a five-year old, but Mila is no ordinary five-year old. That girl LOVES naps. Still. She has never outgrown her adoration for a 2-hour nap after lunch. You can go ahead and hate me that I got five years of good naps out of that kid, but then I'm going to introduce you to the other one who NEVER was a good sleeper and remind you that the universe owes me. The universe is nowhere near paying its debt in full, in fact. I'm still waiting for Alexis to learn to sleep like a normal human, so Mila needs to exceed all expectations.

Not getting a nap is wrecking the kid. She's falling asleep in the car on the way home after school, which never leads anywhere good. Today it led to a kid who was OUT when we pulled into soccer. Now, she LOVES soccer. She seems to love all sports that involve a lot of running, so I wasn't going to skip just because she was taking a late-day nap. I woke her little butt up and drug her inside, which led to a total and complete meltdown.

HOORAY!

I have video of said meltdown because it was THAT amazing. There was kicking and screaming and all sorts of fun things. Mila hasn't quite figured out that I don't bluff when I say things like, "You can either quit screaming right now or leave," which just leads to her getting madder and whatever. She can go ahead and lose her mind. I'll stand over here with my arms crossed and rolling my eyes.

The trick to getting her to snap out of her fit was to exploit one of her weaknesses. The kid is SO competitive. I've never seen anything quite like it. So while we were sitting on the sidelines and she was refusing to participate, I was commenting on how good some of the kids were doing.

"Look at that little boy! He's really good at kicking the ball!"

"Look at how fast that girl is running! She's the fastest!"

And so on.

Mila's response to every nice thing I said about any kid was along the lines of, "I'm better at kicking the ball" or "I'm the fastest!" She legit got ANGRY at the notion that she may not be the best at something. Not quite angry enough to run out on the field, but still angry.

I won when I said, "That girl is THE BEST at scoring goals! Look how good she is playing!"

Mila jumped out of my lap, stormed onto the field, and promptly began kicking the ball LIKE A BOSS. Whatever. I won the battle. Someday she will learn to be happy for other peoples' successes and to not be such a sore loser. Someday.

Later when we got in the car, I commented that I was glad Mila decided to give in and play. She legit did a good job of turning her bad mood into a fun day. Her response to my compliment says it all, though.

"Mom, I had to go play. Those kids were never going to get a goal without me."

WELL THEN.