Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was tethered to me. An invisible thread kept her within reach at all times, except I don't know why I'm using the past tense because that little girl is STILL tethered to me.
Alexis.
Alexis has spent all of her ten years trying to figure out how to get closer to me, no matter where I am. It's sort of magical when we're out in public. I can drift away from her and she will unwittingly move with me. Sometimes I mess with her when we're running errands. I'll walk an aisle away and then see how long it takes for her to magically appear.
It's never more than 5 seconds.
That kid has a built-in homing device. I swear it.
Mila, on the other hand, has no time for concern about my whereabouts. She has a world to discover and she can't be bothered with waiting for me to figure out which way she needs to go. Girlfriend is GONE. Always.
Which, in public? It's only sort of an issue. Awareness is key, of course. As long as I remember that she doesn't care where I am, I can remember to care where she is, and I can keep up. At home, though. WOOBOY.
Alexis started out with a lot of help in keeping track of me. We lived in a tiny townhouse until she was 3, so there wasn't anywhere to go. I could literally see her as long as we were on the same floor of the house, and we always were because Alexis.
Mila doesn't need to be on the same floor of the house. She also has about 2000 more square feet of house at her disposal. That means that there is no such thing as sitting on the couch and relaxing when Mila is on the loose. With a blink, she can go from the living room to climbing the bookshelves in the loft. Blink again and you'll find her crawling through the boxes in our storage room in our basement. Blink one more time and you'll find her locked in the playroom closet, surrounded by toys that she's not allowed to have.
I'd ask how she reaches the banned toys down from very high in the closet, but it's better that I not fully investigate that. Because MILA.
Guys, I don't know how to make the climbing stop. Even when everyone remembers to close all of the doors, Mila just opens the doors and finds a reason to go up. If I make a big deal out of the climbing, she does it more. I'm about to put all of the food in our pantry on the floor because what else is there to do?
She is going to climb.
She is going to take off for another room.
Always.
Which leads me to wonder why exactly I have a kid tethered to me when she could be tethered to her sister. At least then I would always know where the Tiny one was...