Wishers and Joy

Monday

May012017

The words "I want to go to the playground," are like half of Mila's vocabulary lately. I mean, she has lots of other words, but she's like a broken record that keeps on going around and around and around with the same message. She'll venture off topic once in a while, but we're still going to come back to talking about the playground.

Always the playground.

She is an expert-level playground connoisseur, so of course she can't just demand ANY playground, she tells me exactly which playground I'm supposed to drive to. There's the yellow playground, the brown playground, and the red playground, for example, each of which I can absolutely figure out. There are a few others that I'm not sure about, but I have those three down pat. So, when Mila specifically requested the yellow playground on the way home from her sister's cheer practice, I knew I was in trouble.

The yellow playground is nowhere near where we were. We were headed to the red playground.

I told Mila we were headed for the red one, and of course she lost her mind. You can't just go to any playground. You have to go to the exact playground she wants.

OH WELL.

I drove to the red playground anyway and then enjoyed the sweet sounds of a tantrum escalating. I figured it would end when I opened the door and said, "You can go play or we can go home," but I was wrong. It is totally possible to go play AND throw a tantrum about the fact that you're playing at the wrong place.

No worries, though. I fixed it.

Just as Mila was about to throw herself from the top of the slide in a fit of anger, I noticed the little patch of dandelions that somehow survived a recent mowing. With a wave and a promise of "wishers," I had Mila's attention.

A few minutes later, I had her joy.