Chloe is 14. Chloe is 14. Chloe is 14.
I’ve been repeating that short factual sentence to myself for days now, getting used to the sound of it. It’s strange. Although it’s not a particularly momentous birthday, it feels like a bigger deal than it really is.
I don’t know why I feel this way. On the one hand, I’m happy. Chloe is healthy and content. She has made it through her first full year as a teenager and hasn’t yet turned into a monster. Maybe we’ll survive the years of Teenageddon after all, I muse.
Continue reading Can It Be 5,112 Days Already? →
At the end of the month, Chloe will celebrate her 14th birthday. She remains relatively amiable and hasn’t yet entirely forsaken the family unit in search of greener pastures with her friends. I count myself lucky that she still wants to spend time with us, even if she has taken to spending more solitary hours in her girl-woman cave, aka her bedroom.
I’ve started to notice other subtle changes in our interactions, too. We still talk, but not as often as we used to. She’ll arrive home from school and spend five minutes answering my questions and ingesting a second lunch before retiring to her lair until her stomach tells her it’s almost dinner time and she yells, “Mom, when are we eating? What are we having?”
Continue reading Inside My Daughter’s Teenage Mind →
My daughters are growing up. In fits and starts, perhaps. But mostly starts. I find that their recent forward momentum is simultaneously exciting and bittersweet. I haven’t sorted out where I stand in their evolution from child to tween and from tween to teen, but I’m not always as happy about it as I think I should be. Aren’t good parents always supposed rejoice in their children’s self-actualization and maturation? Am I being selfish in wanting to arrest their development for a few years? To stop time in order to collect as many hugs and as much laughter as I can before they no longer want to hug us and laugh with us?
Continue reading Loving My Girls in the Here and Now →
Hello, my friends. Tomorrow is a momentous day for me. I will be six months old. My human family tells me it’s not a real birthday. Whatever. They’re such Debbie Downers. I beg to disagree with them (and believe me, I’m good at begging). My human sister Chloe officially celebrated joining the Teenageddon army the other day, and now I am a terrible teen, too.
Continue reading Happy Birthday to Moi, Super Truffle! →
Having started the tradition of interviewing Chloe for her birthday last year, here are her thoughts on finally entering the era of Teenageddon.
The moral of the story is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Chloe did not look at last year’s entry before finishing this one and was surprised at how similar her answers were.
Continue reading What Chloe Has to Say About Turning 13 →
A Mom's Ramblings About the Marvels & Mishaps of Parenting, the Joys of Family Travel & the Writing Life
