Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I'm so grateful for this day we have to think about our blessings and to recognize how incredible this great country is. I was going to write a blog to this effect, but then I ran across this one and realized I could never say it as well, so go read Kerry's blog instead.

In the meantime, I have another reason to celebrate but also to mourn. My daughter is turning twelve today. She's excited to go to Girls' Camp and Young Women and to grow up and be a teenager, and I'm mourning the fact that she's going to Girls' Camp and Young Women and growing up and being a teenager. I still feel twelve -- I'm not ready for this -- I keep wondering if I've taught her enough and if she feels like she's got a strong foundation and most of all, wondering how she can be turning twelve when I so plainly remember the day she was born and dressing her in tiny little sleepers and holding the length of her entire body on my forearm. And it's all burned into my memory and lives like it was just yesterday, and now she's telling me that she's twelve? I think someone's playing a big trick on me . . . she's really only two.

10 comments:

Shirley Bahlmann said...

Ah, yes, those sneaky children grow up and pretend to be adults, and their dress up clothes are so realistic! Where DO they get those fake beards that look so real?

Karen said...

My daughter is 11 1/2 and she's my youngest. I can't believe she's a "tween" -- isthat what they call it? Like we just let her be a kid and then be labeled something else at 13? I feel your pain:(

Jewel Allen said...

Yeah, I went through the same thing this summer, when my oldest when to girl's camp. I felt very excited for her. I feel closer than ever to her, as she navigates her older world of YW and gasp, junior high.

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Ouchie. I feel that way about Emma and she's only four.

Nichole Giles said...

Tristi,
My daughter just got back from her first girls camp experience. She had a great time and claimed she wasn't homesick at all. (but I don't believe her.)

She was an infant yesterday. I don't feel old enough to have a twelve-year-old daughter, and I even have a fourteen-year-old son. Still, they are my biggest source of happiness.

Your daughter will have a great time.

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

Happy {late} 4th to you too. I understand about the "where did the time go? how did they get so big?" My oldest will be 14 next month and my babies turn 4 in 3 days! What the heck?! How did that happen? :)

Lee Ann Setzer said...

I remember lying in the hospital with my newborn and trying my hardest to imagine him 2 years old--and failing.

He's 14 now, and I can't even cradle his foot in my arm!

Kimberly Job said...

Oh, I feel for you. I've been there. Somehow, the experience always seems to be easier on the child than it is on Mom. She'll do great. I can't wait to hear how it goes.

Keeley said...

Mine turns 18 next month. 18! She'll be an adult! What the heck?

Danyelle Ferguson said...

Oh Tristi - think of the fun you'll have painting toe nails and all the other girly girly stuff young women do. It will all be fine. (remind me I said that in a couple of years when my kids start turning twelve!)

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