DoobieRoo

We’re walking around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. Moira and Kenna were getting to that tired/wild/excited part of the night (plus the Christmas Eve factor) and were running in front of us checking out each and every house and its decorations. Moira was keeping up a running commentary on what she saw on each lawn.

Moira: “And this one has a reindeer, lights, Santa, some presents, oh – there’s a penguin and some trees.”
Me: “Are you going to give us a blow-by-blow of each house silly girl?”
Moira: “I like to give a blow.”
Robin (while snorting): “It’s blow-BY-blow.”
Moira: “I like just blow.”

While riding in the car a few afternoons back:

Moira (in full indignant outrage mode): “MOM! Kenna keeps commanding me!!”

Let me start off with two pieces of random information that are relevant to this quote.

1. Moira receives a weekly allowance. We debated about how to do it, when to do it, and how to explain it to her. Ultimately we quit debating and just did it. Much like many decisions in parenthood, we wanted to make sure we did the best we could by our kids. And since Moira is the oldest, she’s also the guinea pig. Long story short – she receives her age X $1 per week with no strings attached. Presently her allowance is $6 a week. Seems like a lot to old folks like me, but the point of her receiving allowance is to help her begin to understand how money works, how to save it, how to spend it, etc. If her allowance was so small she could do nothing with it (thanks inflation!), then really what was the point?

2. Moira has Citizen of The Household chores. She does these weekly because she is a member of the family. See – you thought we just gave her allowance and expected nothing in return eh? We opted not to tie the two directly mostly because I didn’t want to hear “That’s okay – I have enough money – I don’t want to do my chores this week.” She’s smart like that. The newest chore in Moira’s repertoire is emptying the dishwasher. This was Alan’s bright idea…I cringed thinking she was too young and having visions of shattered ceramic ware lying on our ceramic tile floor (trust me – when those babies break – they shatter spectacularly). I was dead wrong. Not only is she careful and attentive – she loves it!

The other night Alan let her know that the dishwasher was clean and ready to be emptied. He also mentioned that we owed her allowance and did she want it then or later?

Her exuberant response was this: “You mean I get my allowance AND I get to empty the dishwasher??” (said with a HUGE smile plastered on her face)

Even typing the words now – I think that has got to be the best thing to have ever come out of her mouth. Well, maybe besides “I love you Mommy!”

We’re eating dinner and talking about seeds that are in some fruits. Moira is eating purple grapes that claim to be seedless. She says that they have seeds in them. Alan tries one to see if the seeds are big enough to detect. Then we explain to Moira that all seedless fruits actually have seeds, they are just too small to taste or feel with your tongue.

Alan goes on to say that you just poop the seeds out. Jokingly I say “they only turn into plants sometimes”.

Moira immediately turns to me and says “it will if you eat dirt.”

Moira got her ears pierced this last weekend. It suddenly became the big thing at school and Moira (who has infinite style) realized it was another opportunity for demonstration of said style. Shazam!

So she asked and we discussed and then ultimately agreed. I made her watch a video on aftercare and warned her that it would hurt. Her response: “I know Mom!”

To be fair – she is my kid who barely cried for immunizations. Her pain threshold seems to be pretty high. And sure enough – while she sat there in “the chair” and they punched holes in her ears, she didn’t even bat an eye.

She’s super proud of herself and seems downright enchanted that she actually has earrings IN her ears!

While we were walking back through the mall to return to our car – she walked up next to me, grabbed my hand, and smiled up at me. And it struck me that she won’t always look up at me like that. She won’t even want to walk near me, let alone hold my hand.

And my heart hurt just a little bit.

Who knew parenting would be such a bittersweet experience? I had plenty of folks regaling me with tales of sleep deprivation, dirty diapers, and picky eating. But not one single person mentioned that for every step your child takes forward you’re both deliriously proud and a little sad. Because you’ll never be there again and kids really do grow up too fast.

It sucks when cliches are true.

True to her word, Moira patiently lets me clean her ears the required three times daily. And at least once a day, she proudly says: “I can’t believe I pierced my ears!”

I can’t wait to see what earrings she picks out when she’s allowed to remove the piercing studs.

Sparkly purple dolphins anyone?