The Lesser of Two Villians

Alexis is an honest-to-goodness real person who has a life separate from me. It's been that way for a while now, so I've had time to adapt to days when she spends her time in the company of friends instead of with me.

I'm not saying I like it, but I have found a few advantages.

So when Alexis spent all day Sunday with a friend, I set out to accomplish things that are best done without her presence. A quick run through Target was full of the challenges that come with having Mila along for the ride, but I didn't get asked, "Can we buy this?" 2422091350938  times.

BEAUTIFUL.

Even better, after a quick run through Target, I knew it was my chance to get ice cream.

Look, I love treating my Big Kid to ice cream. I do. But I also love getting to eat the flavor that I pick. For the entirety of her life, Alexis has one a fantastic job of swearing she wanted some random flavor but then complaining and stealing the flavor I ordered instead. For example, she will say she wants the Purple Dinosaur crap, but she ends up eating my White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle.

It's beyond frustrating.

That's why Mila and I HAD to get ice cream. She's too little to have opinions about flavors and such, so it was my chance to pick what I really wanted and enjoy every last drop of it.

You know where this is going, right? It's super obvious to me in retrospect.

In case it's not obvious, I wandered up to the Bruester's window, ordered my Turtle ice cream, and pondered what to get for Mila. I figured the big nuts in Turtle probably weren't a great idea for her, so she got strawberry.

She loves strawberry EVERYTHING. She especially loves strawberry ice cream.

Once I had two cones in hand, I plopped Mila on top of a table and sat in front of her holding her cone. Within seconds, there was ice cream covering every surface, but she was happily attacking her strawberry ice cream.

And then she spotted my ice cream.

The first time she lunged towards my cone, I blocked her with her own cone. The best ice cream is the ice cream that is nearest to your face. Mila agrees with that theory. Thus, she was distracted and took a bite out of her own cone. But, then she remembered. Then she remembered that I had something that looked delightful. She lunged again. I blocked her with her own cone again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That worked for a few minutes.

But then it stopped working.

In a flash, it happened. I didn't know what was happening, it just was. A smile and a giggle and suddenly the ice cream was gone.

ALL OF IT.

Mila ate both cones.

Note to self: it's better to treat the kid who wants to trade ice cream than it is to treat the kid who steals all of the ice cream.

Comments

[Elizabeth]

My weirdo kid does not like ice cream so thankfully I don't have to share. He does however adore snocones which requires some sharing.