So The Comedian has taken a new interest in all things “her”. Her hair, her waist, her clothes, shoes, purse, accessories – every bit of it is analyzed and groomed to perfection. The super great part about this process is that it isn’t analyzed or groomed to anybody’s standard… except her own. This means we get to have a fashion debate about whether or not an orange and pink striped shirt matches navy blue with multi-colored polka dot leggings – “because they both have orange and pink, and they both have a design.” It’s even better when I hear things like “this is how all the teenagers do it”. GAH!?!?! Child, you are 9 years old. N.I.N.E. Not 16. Not even 12. At this point I have a little argument in my head about whether or not I should take this moment to discuss a) that you’re only young once and blah blah blah, enjoy the time you have now… b) I have never once seen a teenager throw the hair on the left side of their head over the top, tuck it behind one ear, and hold it all in place with 1 bobby pin and a plaid headband, without brushing it first… or c) I think you are super great just like you are, and you should make sure that you do things because you like them, not because someone else likes them… I sometimes wonder if I’m the only mom out there who has this crazy internal dialogue running every minute of the day thinking about how I should react, how I did react, or how I would react given any tiny little step in the road. No wonder I can’t remember anything any more. My mind is filled up with all of these crazy little conversations.
Wow. That sorta makes me sound literally crazy. That’s not what I meant…. Aghh, never mind.
Getting back to the subject at hand – The comedian puts herself through a 12 point inspection every time we go any where. I had no idea the tweener phase could start this young. I don’t know if I’m ready for this. Seems like it was just yesterday she started kindergarten. It’s sort of bittersweet. I keep thinking about how I miss when she was little and she dragged her babies around everywhere, and played in the sandbox, and still saw everything as a new discovery — then I think about how cool it’s going to be to have real conversations with this little girl young woman, watch her grow into an adult, and watch her make decisions that will affect her whole life. It’s kind of overwhelming. But awesome.
Now that I think about it, maybe it doesn’t matter if she wears a red and blue dress with hot pink tights. That’s just a sign that she’s still little… I’ll take that for now.

