11 going on 25

It doesn’t seem like it’s been a year since I posted pictures of my cute baby girl on her 10^th birthday. She is now 11 years old and I can’t believe it. Her attitude and moodiness is far surpassing that of her age. Just recently I’ve watched her turn the corner from thinking Mom and Dad had most of the answers to thinking that Mom and Dad not only know nothing, but are unfair and cruel. I mean, I knew it was coming, I just thought we had a little more time.

Her whiny face hasn't changed much

For the big birthday celebration this year I took her and 4 of her friends to the ice skating rink, to the mall for some shopping, and to dinner. I really do like her friends. They are all really supportive of each other and they all have really unique and funny personalities. But I’m still the girl who never wanted to have kids and I was SO grateful that my mom asked to tag along. She is much better at tolerating the goofy, off-the-wall behavior than I am.

We started our day at the ice rink. Lilly was tentative about having a part of her party there because she didn’t want to come across as copying her friends (she’s been there for 2 other birthdays in the last month). But alas she couldn’t resist. The girls skated around for a little over an hour before their ankles were sore and they had each fallen at least once. They were ready to hit the mall!

After the giggly, goofy car ride to the mall we stopped off at Starbucks (Lilly’s favorite) for a drink. I was so impressed that after ice skating and Starbucks all of the girls thanked me. What good manners – nice work parents! And even though my mother doesn’t think it’s right, I love that the girls remember to call me Nichole and not Mrs. Reedy. I know that Mrs. Reedy is “proper” but that name belongs to my mother-in-law, not me.

We stopped in a PACKED Aeropostale, spent a long time in Claire’s, and perused through Justice, but JCPenney took the cake. The girls decided to try on prom dresses. Like my normal nervous Nellie self I was worried they were clogging the dressing room, or making too much noise, but my mom was quick to say, “Nah, this is fun. You’ll miss this. Let them go,” so I did. They tried on dress, after dress, after dress, taking time between each to model for Murmur. My daughter is such a character I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t end up pursuing an acting degree. She’s dramatic, she’s expressive and she’s over the top….and it’s SO cute even if it does get annoying.

 

 

 

When we were done crashing the dress department we headed over to the high heels so that the girls could attempt to break some ankles. It cracks me up to watch them attach personalities to the shoes. There they are, in their own clothes, with a crazy pair of high heels on assuming the personality of the person they think might wear them. A couple of turned ankles later (with no real injuries I might add) we put a stop to the high heels and headed to Macy’s.

 

Macy’s was not too exciting (except that we lost Murmur along the way – don’t worry we found her) and so we headed to Forever 21. They were all overcome with the aisles and aisles of cheap makeup, and jewelry, and accessories. I asked Lilly to borrow her phone (mine was dead) and she couldn’t find it. We looked through her purse but it was nowhere to be found. A quick check in with Murmur and off we went to retrace our steps. I was SO mad…and she knew it. We have had many discussions about the importance of keeping track of house keys, phones, and wallets. I couldn’t believe she lost the phone. Turns out there are still some nice, honest people out there, and someone returned the phone to a sales associate who turned it in to lost and found who called “home” and notified Dad that they had her phone. I was still really mad but the hubs reminded me to let her have a good evening. After some more tears from Lilly, and some deep breaths on my part, smiles started to return and we went back to shopping.

 

It had been a long, exhausting day and we were all ready for dinner. The Spaghetti Factory was packed to the brim but thanks to their call ahead seating we only waited about 20 minutes. By this time the girls were all jacked up on some candy they had purchased and all of their extra energy was directed straight at our waiter. They each ordered Italian sodas and while one would order, another would ask the waiter some bizaare question. When it was time to order, First Riley ordered a “rocket” off the kids menu (the word “rocket” was in the word search). Our poor waiter looked at her puzzled. “It’s on the menu,” she said, “right here.” Being a good sport he ran to the kitchen, came back, and said, “Sorry, the last one just took off.” The girls spent our whole dinner laughing, asking the waiter for special requests – like, “My lettuce is in too big of chunks, can you make it smaller?” – and in general showing their own special combination of humor and wit. At some point, because the rocket issue could not be let go, the waiter went and got the general manager. They barraged him with questions and requests. I think someone asked if he could please get One Direction to come to the restaurant. He was also a good sport and ended up leaving noting that “These are the girls that are going to make it. They are witty and smart and I can tell they’re going to do something with their lives.” In the end, they made the waiter guess their ages, guess their names, they insulted him by guessing he was 37 (he was 33) and told him that he was probably smart because he wore glasses. They were so happy with him putting up with all of their razzing that they insisted on giving him a tip. Being a good guy, he continued to hand the dollars back to the girls. Then Lilly, in an act I expect she will look back on in several years and laugh even harder, tucked two dollars into the waist of his apron! All I could do was shake my head and laugh – it really was pretty funny. Daniel, you made the girls’ night. They talked about dinner the whole way home! Thank you for being such a good humored and patient waiter.

 

 

Just when it finally seemed like they were tired and quieting down the giggling began again. We dropped the girls off, one by one and went home. At each stop Lilly asked her friend, “Did you have fun?” Everyone answered yes with a big smile. I truly think that some life-long memories were made that night. I can only imagine how hard they will laugh when they are at their high school reunion, remembering this night, and wondering how they got away with continually asking their male waiter for a rocket! (Sorry, I tried to keep my mind out of the gutter but they just kept saying it – over and over and over!)

I hope you had a fun birthday party Lil. Despite the large dose of hormones that you seemed to have gotten from Mother Nature for your birthday that has turned you into a moody snot, I still love you. You’ll always be my favorite daughter!