“I’m not going this year.  I can go next. I don’t really feel like it” . about the semi formal at school this year.  Her friends are going but she’s not feeling it this year.

“Mama stop looking!” as I fuss over the pimples that have cropped up on her nose.  (I’m sensitized to this as I was the class resident Rudolph when I was 13 years old)

“I’m good, I still have lunch money from last week”…

“I don’t have homework tonight but I’ll work on assignments due later this term…”

” I love gym class – I did so many situps in a minute, and volleyball was so much fun! Can we buy a volleyball?”

Her mid term report card is great.  She loves school, she loves her friends, she loves her weekends, she loves and misses her brother … but she wears an article of his clothing everyday.

This self-assured girl has only missed 3 days of this school year so far due to legitimate sickness.  Legitimate meaning knock-out cold and fever.  By this time in elementary, she would have missed at least 3 times that the number of days, for stomachaches, for “I don’t know why but I feel bad”, for “just because”.  For anxiety.

This trajectory is amazing.  Her growing self-confidence and maturity are coming to the forefront.  The attitude of a teen is there but understandable and while sometimes annoying (Mom can’t catch a break on the criticism sometimes) … she’s being a teen.

A teen who communicates, a teen who will create lairs throughout the house, who litters her floor with laundry, who gets tummy aches from too many Halloween treats, who forgets to put dishes in the dishwasher, who hums BTS tunes when she thinks no one is listening.

My wondrous teen girl.  I am loving the transformation.