Thanks, Alexis

I tell Alexis this all of the time, but it's worth noting here - I don't know how I would manage to tame the three-ring circus that is Mila without a big sister to act as the ringmaster. It's especially evident when we run errands.

It took three tries -- THREE -- for me to purchase the fabric to make Mila's Halloween costume. The first two tries Alexis had the nerve to have a life separate from the rest of us, so I was alone in my attempts to keep Mila from burning the store down. I succeeded in my fire prevention mission, but it involved lots of running laps around the store, a horrifying incident with a mountain of glitter, and leaving empty-handed.

It was bad.

The third time I went to the fabric store, Alexis was with us. She happily grabbed Mila's hand and checked out the displays near to where I needed to shop. I walked out with the needed fabric and a My Little Pony hat, so I consider that trip a win.

There is some mutual benefit stuff happening with the big sister greatness, for what it's worth. Alexis uses Mila as a source of entertainment, saving her from being bored while I adult. I adult without losing my mind, so there's my win. Mila seems to find hanging out with Alexis to be way more fun than torturing me, so we're all winning a gold medal.

Today's gold medal game involved a very quick stop at the grocery store. Vegetables for fried rice were on the list, so we ran through the produce and frozen departments very quickly with plans to be in and out of the store in less than five minutes.

But then Mila made it clear that she wanted to eat right that second. She would have been fine with eating the package of broccoli, plastic wrap and all, but I deemed that unacceptable.

"You can each pick a small bag of chips," I told the girls. I knew it would take an hour for us to get home and me to get dinner on the table, so a little snack was probably an excellent idea.

Alexis practically jumped for joy because HOOOOBOOOY! CHIPS! MOM NEVER LETS ME HAVE CHIPS! She started walking her way around the display, and walking some more, and walking some more because decisions are hard, yo.

So hard.

For Alexis. Mila rocks the decision thing. She took one look at the display, grabbed the bag that was closest to her, and was ready to party.

But not Alexis. She kept inspecting each and every bag of chips on the display. It should be noted that there were a lot of chips there. Pretty much every kind of salty goodness you can imagine was available as a choice. Alexis searched and debated and generally did a very bad job of being decisive.

I just stood there waiting, with one eye on Mila to make sure she didn't start a fire and the other eye on Alexis as she picked things up and set them down and repeated the process again and again and again. As this was happening, I was certain Mila was going to bolt. If I take her to a store and spend more than 0.0000002 seconds looking at something, she's gone. But Alexis? For Alexis she will wait.

Patiently.

Sooooo patiently.

As she waited and waited and WAITED for Alexis to make a decision, Mila did the only logical thing a person can do in that situation. She sat down, ripped her chips open, and started snacking. Right smack in the middle of the store. Mila held herself a little "I'm waiting for my sister" picnic.

Someday she'll hold a picnic for me, right? Someday? Maybe?

Comments

[Lauren]

Inquiring minds need to know: what kind of chips did Alexis select?!