My Little turned 10 this month! How fun! A while back she told me as she climbed into the car “I’m so excited to turn ten!”
“Yeah, what about it makes it special?” I wondered if she’d answer like most kids might – Presents!
“Well, I’m going to be double digits!” she told me, “And we’re going to Florida and I’ll get to see my baby sister in a bathing suit and she’s going to be so cute!”
This kid. I swear.
To celebrate the big one-oh, we went to a shop where you can paint pottery, and from there we went for pizza at one of her favorite places – Regina’s!
At the Clayroom (the pottery place), we picked out our colors and sat quietly painting our pieces. Focused on the task at hand. I made many coats on the mug so it would be nice and bright, painted hearts all over it, and wrote words to describe and encourage her like bright, funny, kind, and brave. Tacky as possible is what I was going for.
She noticed I was doing this and asked if she could put words on my bowl too. Of course, if you want to!
I wanted her bowl to be a surprise so I didn’t watch what she was doing too carefully. Before long, she asked “Are there two Os in the word ‘goofy’?”
I had to laugh, “Yes, there are two Os in goofy.”
Right now she is into history, so at lunch I gave her a book about women in history, written for kids. She was excited about it, and I said “pick a random page and let’s read!”
She did so, landing on a woman who led an army in battle, complete with beheading and raping.
Uh, this is a children’s book, right? I taught her was “beheading” meant but skipped rape, because what the hell, children’s book?
When it came time to order pizza, she struggled – plain or pepperoni? Her head about exploded when I told her we could just get half and half.
We often do not have a loss of things to talk about, her being ten and me being a grown-up and all. So, I’ve started asking her about school, but more specifically, about the people in her class. “Who sits in front of you?” etc.
This time I asked who some of her closest friends in school are. She mentioned a girl’s name, (I’ll call her Sophie) and I asked “What is it that you like about Sophie?”
Her answer, much like the Why I’m Psyched to Turn Ten answer, impressed me. It wasn’t “She wears cool clothes” or “She thinks I’m great.” Her answer was “Sophie really cares about people”
I seriously have nothing to teach this kid.
As she finished her last slice I asked “Did you leave room for a birthday sundae?” and she patted her side and said “I did…right here on my left side”
I did notice when she was painting that she put a moon and star in the bottom of my bowl. I did not look closely at her work at the time, not wanting to ruin the surprise. It was only when I picked it up that I saw what she’d actually painted…
BEAN'S BABBLETORIUM 