Growing Up

I title this with a little joy and excitement but also with a little cringe. Rachel has been a joy since the day she was born. She was an easy baby - easy to ween to the bottle, easy to ween from a pacifier, easy to teach to read and write her name before school started, easy, easy easy. Until potty training. That she did not like. It took a month or so but we finally made it and she did great once she had it down. Now we've come into the tween years. This Thursday, on Thanksgiving Day, she turns twelve. I can hardly believe it. Twelve years of having this amazing gift in our lives; a gift that has brought so much laughter, happiness and joy in our lives. I have come to believe that I had no reason for any other children, because she is the perfect one. My heart is so full of love and adoration for her. Holding her for the first time after her birth was the first time I felt that all encompassing, heart wrenching love for another person. In a way, she taught me how to love.

This past week was a busy one for us, but especially for Rachel. She performed her play Wed., Thurs, and Fri. nights, having to be there at 6 p.m.. It ran until 8:45. But she was phenomenal in it. On Monday and Tuesday, they had dress rehearsal from immediately after school until 7 p.m. AND it was finals week! She pretty much fell into bed every night.

On the last night of the play, we met her as we had each night by the ticket table. She quickly put her arm around my neck, looked back at her dad and said, "Girl talk," as she led me out the door ahead of him. Then she gleefully told me she had a boyfriend. Okay, I admit I felt a little panic overcome me. But then I calmed down so as to not take any of the joy out of this experience for her. I said, "Really? That's wonderful, Sweetie. Who is it?" It is Will, the boy who gave her the paper origami flower. The boy who although admittedly cute, only comes up to my daughter's shoulder. And here's the kicker: She asked him. He said yes immediately but she asked him to think about it because she didn't want them to break up the next day or anything like that. He came over to her at the end of the play and said he still wanted to be her boyfriend. That night, while Daddy was in another room, we had the boundaries talk again. Good thing, too, since she couldn't remember any of them (we discussed it when she got the paper flower).

Anyway, she's thrilled and happy and not even close to thinking she loves him or anything crazy like that - just a nice, sweet little crush that's reciprocated. He just better not do anything to hurt my little girl's heart.

We'll celebrate Rachel's twelth birthday on Thanksgiving at a friend's house where we'll be spending the day. We took $20 out of Jay's temporary job check and bought her the little purse and wallet she asked for - wanting to feel more grown up than the little "play" purses she has. We'll have a cake and we'll all sing Happy Birthday to her. She wanted to take some friends to a movie (like Movie Tavern or Cinema Grill) for the movie and pizza and then home for presents, but we'll have to do that after the 1st of the year or just plan that for next year since Jay still hasn't found a job. She's doing okay about that. I think it's harder on me because twelve is a big year, a milestone, and I wanted to do more for her. But what counts is she knows it's important to us and that we are proud of her and she can't doubt that.