Growing up

EEeeeek! My tweenager is growing up!

Today we hit a milestone for her. She probably could have done this ages ago and she probably is totally embarrassed that I would draw attention to this fact but I’m sure every mother and father can relate.

My tweenager did everything this morning. By. Her. Self.

What’s the big deal you ask? Think about it.

When she FIRST started going to school, it was everything in my power to just get her to eat her breakfast at a clip faster than a turtle. And forget about shoes. Every morning I needed to ask her to put on her shoes and jacket. Every. Single. Morning. I swear, everything was a big deal. Getting out of bed. Brushing the teeth. Getting dressed. Doing her hair.

We had check mark lists. We had sticker systems. We had reminders. We tried to get up earlier. We tried to go to bed earlier. We tried changing the order of things around.

I lost my cool many times. She lost her cool many times. My hubby lost his cool many times. I remember even her and I having all out battles with me screaming at her and then dropping her off at daycare or school her crying, me crying feeling like a terrible mother…

Then she got older. And she stopped dilly dallying as much. She had more of an interest for time. She wasn’t perfect but she understood. But toast and/or cereal was still made for her. We needed to tell her to get dressed and brush her teeth. We needed to tell her how much time there was until we needed to leave. Counting down… 10 minutes… 5 minutes… You know how it goes.

And still she got older and she got an alarm. She knew how long she could sleep in and how long it took to get dressed. She knew when she needed to leave and what she needed to do to get ready. But we still got up with her. Helped her get breakfast ready and ate with her.

And then today. Both my hubby, me and the wee babe slept in. My tweenager got up, had a shower, fed herself, brushed her teeth, her hair, got her backpack ready, wrote me a note telling me to have a wonderful day and she was just about out the door when I woke up.

What the?!?!? You were going to leave without me getting up? I have mixed emotions about this. I’m freaking out a bit. The day has come where she is totally self sufficient. She doesn’t need me anymore. No more prodding. No more helping. No more hugs and kisses before you leave?

Stop right there.

There ain’t no way you’re walking out of this house without a hug and a kiss from me. You might be growing up but you’re still the little girl I BEGGED to put her shoes on not that long ago.

The difference is you’re all growed up.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 at 7:56 amand is filed under New Beginnings, Tweenager. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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