Thoughts from Another Lake BP Run

This morning, after dropping off the carpool kids at school, I headed over to Lake Boy Part for a quick run (headed over...hee, hee), because today is Friday and I DON'T TEACH ON FRIDAYS!!!!

In case you've just joined me here, or if you need a refresher, this is Lake BP.

This morning I ran about 5 and a half miles, 1:01:21, an 11:04 minute mile pace. Not bad...

So, lest you think that all I do in my life is run, blog, and drink mimosas with the heffers, you should know that I spent the bulk of my run this morning thinking about other MAJOR THINGS that really take up the majority of my time in my life, which is raising my two kids (Drama Girl and Turbo).

Well really, as I ran, I thought about my kids and also that I was running up the shaft of Lake BP...but we won't talk about that.

Anyway, this morning, I found myself thinking about the amazing and interesting people my children are becoming. They are at such an age right now that every day, I am struck by how they are not really my babies any more, but are becoming independent, creative, intelligent individuals...it surprises me every single time.

For example, last year Turbo, who is a quite sensitive (sometimes momma's boy) kid had continual problems with the other boys on at school. I grew up with sisters, so boy-worlds are frequently a mystery to me. But my best guess at what was going on is that he would do something wrong, or would make a mistake (as we all do), and the other boys would make fun of him and he'd get upset and would all too freqently cry, which made him more of a target for being made fun of... Walter and I tried to suggest many times that if he'd laugh at his own mistakes first, then others would be less inclined to laugh at him (although they would certainly, and hopefully, laugh with him... I guess I base this whole blog on that premise, that you all are NEVER laughing at me, but are laughing with me).

He would tell us in no uncertain terms that our strategy just would NEVER work.

He told me many times that I just didn't understand what it was like to be a boy. (He was right, I don't)

Then just yesterday, he told me that he was using our strategy of laughing at himself if he goofed up, and things were going really well at school because of it.

A miracle...momma and daddy were right...

Reliving that thought kept me going for a mile or so...

Drama Girl is turning 13 on Tuesday. In other words, I am going to be living with a teenager! Oh my lord help me, but yes, it's true. I have to wonder how THAT happened. I swear just yesterday she was sleeping in a bassinet beside my bed.

DramaGirl is too much like me. She forgets things constantly, loses items regularly, gets distracted by her own thoughts and the projects she is most engaged in frequently. I'm like that too. I barely get through a day without losing my keys at least once.

Like me she is so much more interested in her own projects than the drugery of the chores I insist whe do. (For example, there are at least three loads of laundry that need folding, and have needed folding for several days now, but here I sit, blogging away because it is what I would rather be doing). Because she is becoming verbal enough to articulate how she sees the hypocracy of my adult rules (e.g. I don't make my bed every day, so why should she have to put her clothes away?) we have regular loud and animated disagreements about "my rules."

Yes my relative level of immaturity, and her maturity should serve up some entertaining moments in the next few years. Let me tell you I can hardly wait.

And yes, I've said "because I say so" and "I'm the one who pays for those clothes you wear!" Lines I swore I would never say, on multiple ocassions.

Yet she regularly impresses me with how much she cares for all of us. She is loving and even though she is spending the night at a friends house, she will call me later, just to say goodnight (she always does). Sometimes she sends me a text message from school, to tell me that she is having a good (or bad) day. She has far more academic drive than I had when I was her age (I was fine with just earning B's for little to no effort). She strives for A's, not because she want's the A, but because she wants to do good work. She's a great kid. She's brilliant (IMHO) and funny, and creative, and absolutely adorable.

She actually has been watching the Democratic Convention, just because she wants to know what's going on in the world...what 13 year old does that?

So, they're growing up and I have no idea how it all went by so fast...

April 2000. Turbo is 20 months. DramaGirl (can you see the drama already?) is 4 1/2

A vacation moment this summer for momma...with no bickering.
Drama Girl - Almost 13, Turbo 10 1/2