So Much Secreting

It's possible that there is one person who was more excited for Alexis' birthday than Alexis was.

Mila.

Mila was over-the-moon excited about the prospect of celebrating her sister for a day ... or a week. We're DAYS past the event and Mila still hasn't stopped talking about her sister's big day.

I think it might be because there was cake. Is cake. There still IS cake because of course I made too many cupcakes and now Mila is sustaining life by licking the frosting off every cupcake she can find. It should last about two more days before the well runs dry.

Mila helped make the cupcakes, which of course should be "helped" because OMG 4-YEAR OLDS. They are so eager to shove a chair across the room so they can stick their fingers in the mixing bowl. No matter that the mixer is running. And can she break the eggs? Can she put the butter in? Never mind, she wants to eat the butter. Yes, the entire stick. Wait, are there chocolate chips? CAN SHE EAT THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS?

Mila is really very excited about everything in life.

Her sheer joy is exactly why I let her go to Target and pick out a gift for her sister. I already had new bedding all planned out, but figured Mila could toss in whatever she wanted, within reason. I didn't care if it was a baby toy or something perfect for Alexis or whatever in between. The point was to let her be in on a surprise.

THAT ENDED WELL.

So, we wandered the aisles of Target looking for JUST the right thing. Mila finally settled on the Harry Potter section hidden at the back of the store. That was most excellent news because Alexis LOVES all things Harry Potter. There were no bad gifts to be found there. After much debate and consideration, Mila settled on a Hermione figurine. I was proud of her most excellent choice, so off we went to finish out our day.

That was the day before Alexis' actual birthday. Alexis was at dance class at the time, so I hid the figurine in the car and told Mila to keep it a secret. She understood, BUT THEN.

The second Alexis got in the car, Mila blurted, "I have a secret present for you!" And then a whole bunch of words fell out of her face and basically she told Alexis that she had bought her a doll for a birthday and it was a girl and she was Harry Potter's friend.

I mean. There's so many possibilities there. No way did Alexis figure it out. o_O

The next day, Alexis opened her gift from Mila and did a rather polite impersonation of a person who was pleasantly surprised. Except, she wasn't surprised. And she's a bad actress. Look, it was really obvious what had happened. Alexis was all, "Oh, is this my Harry Potter girl that is maybe/probably Hermoine?" and Mila was all, "YES!"

There was no surprise.

AND YET. Mila was super proud of herself. She was so proud that she went on and on to me about how she had surprised Alexis and Alexis had no idea and WOW she should be in charge of more surprises.

We're going to have to have a long talk about recognizing our own strengths and weaknesses ... unless we can put Mila in charge of picking winning lottery numbers. In that case, she can keep having a big mouth just as long as it's only me she spills the beans to.