Clinging to Summer

Mississippi Musings

Mila has been proudly standing in "Say Something Cute Every Day" territory for a few years now. Normally I can't remember exactly what it was that she said that made me laugh, but today! Today I still remember! Mostly because it was like 10 minutes ago.

The scene: It was bedtime. Apparently the kid really is planning to sleep in her own bed for now on. That  means I get to escort her up the stairs, wait as she climbs up in her loft, and then tuck her in for the night. Along the way, I am -always- asked some sort of question that makes my face scrunch up. This time, the question was a very earnest one.

"Who is Miss Sippi?"

Say it fast. You'll catch on.

"Do you mean Mississippi? It's a state like Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Not a person."

Mila replied with genuine surprise and then, "Well, why is it the most important state?"

Never mind that it's VERY NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT STATE. I don't know which one is, but it's not Mississippi. "What makes you think it's the most important state?"

Mila brought up some very good points. "It's EVERYWHERE. It's there when you count one - Mississippi - two - Mississippi - three - Mississippi ..." she continued for a while because obviously us old folks don't know how to count all that high. She also pointed out that you spell Mississippi when you play a Chinese jump roping game.

She's not wrong. We do seem to be obsessed with Mississippi in the most random of ways.

And then Mila closed out the argument with, "I still think Miss Sippi is a person and they named a state after her." She then proceeded to ask Alexa (as in her Amazon speaker) when Miss Sippi was born, which led to Alexa giving a history lesson about the state and all hell broke loose.

My brain still hurts from their argument. Alexa may think she knows a thing or two, but a stubborn 7-year old will always win.

Confuzzled

I moved Mila's bedtime back when school started. She has always and forever gone to bed at 9:00, and it's consistently been perfectly fine, but she was so excited about returning to an actual physical school that I thought I should take advantage of the situation. So, 8:30.

Mila was 1000000% down with the decision. Are you as confused about that fact as I am? Because I was very confused by it. While the kid has never put up too much of a fight over going to bed, I figured that would be the line where she would battle. She didn't.

But okay. We can not fight about an earlier bedtime. I'm cool with that.

Annnnd then I found the problem.

Alexis has dance class A LOT. She's all in on the whole thing, which is fine, but it turns into there being nights when she isn't done until 9:00 or 9:30. Mila has to go with me to pick Alexis up from dance. 8:30 + 9:30 - 9:00 and carry the 6 + 4 - 2.6923 = CRAP.

It's not possible for Mila to go to bed on time two nights per week. But, hey! I'm in charge! I can declare that it's fine! Mila can go to bed at 8:30 most days, but stay up a little later two days and it will all be fine ... it's not fine.

Mila is not fine with it.

I have officially found myself arguing with a 7-year old because she was in the car when it was past her bedtime BY THREE MINUTES and she was completely not happy with the situation. She was straight-up pissed and yelling, "IT'S PAST MY BEDTIME!" and WTH? What child yells at their mom because they're up late?

I gave her ice cream to get her to stop yelling about it.

So if you're wondering if I'm winning at this parenting thing after 18 months of trying to navigate a global pandemic, I think you have your answer. I am not, in fact, winning. At all. But at least I get ice cream while I'm losing?