Tomorrow is Chloe’s birthday and it’s hard to believe she will be 12 years old. Sophie and I asked Chloe a series of questions about her upcoming birthday:
What are you most looking forward to during your 13th year? I’m looking forward to going to France. I’m looking forward to starting seventh grade. I’m looking forward to being able to say, “I’m 12. 12 is a way better number than 11, except for the fact that 11 has two ones.”
Are you looking forward to Mom retiring? I guess, yeah.
Are you looking forward to seeing my play in March (Sophie’s questions)? Of course I am.
Are your schoolmates starting to get smarter now that they’re 12 or are they getting dumber? That’s stupid. Just because you turn 12 doesn’t mean you immediately turn stupid or you immediately turn smart.
Do the boys have peach fuzz facial hair yet? Some, but not many. Thank god.
Are the girls still taller than the boys? Yeah.
Are you still among the oldest in class? I’m one of the older-ish kids.
How do you think 12 will be different from 11? It’s not going to be all that different. It’s kind of the same. You’re the same person.
Chloe is cranky now. She doesn’t like our questions. So I will respect her wishes and stop with the questions, since she is, after all, turning 12 tomorrow.
But to memorialize Chloe’s state of mind the eve of her 12th birthday, Chloe graciously consented to listing her favorites:
Stores: Nordstrom and American Eagle
Book series: Harry Potter, Graceling trilogy, anything by Diane Wynne-Jones, and the Divergent series is pretty high up on her list, too
Movies: Moonrise Kingdom, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and Johnny English Reborn
Musical artists: too numerous to mention
Food: pizza
Games: Monopoly and For Sale
Colors: all shades of blue, blue-green, orange, deep purple, green
TV show: The Office (the episodes w/ Steve Carell)
Actor/Actress: Helena Bonham-Carter, Anne Hathaway, Emma Watson, Maggie Smith, Jennifer Lawrence, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Franco, Daniel Craig (plus others she may be forgetting)
Flower: She doesn’t know enough about flowers to decide
Past vacation: France, duh
Potential future vacation: England