A taste of the teenage years...

Today is Lynn's birthday! We had a yummy, very chocolate cake...thanks, Jean and Becky.

Tonight, the "actual" birthday, paled in comparison to the weekend...we had dinner Friday night with the Arendt gang (sans Zachary)...we had house-guests (Cyndi and Adele) all weekend. We had a dinner party with Ann, Rose, Cheryl, Cindy, Cyndi, Adele and Sophie on Saturday night...and the opening game of the Saint's on Sunday...did I mention that Saturday, Sophie had a workshop at the RHINO gallery?

That brings me to my not-so-pre-teen-freak-out on Sunday night. While at the RHINO gallery on Saturday, Sophie decided to buy a gift for Lynn's b-day...a beautiful pair of earrings by Ashley Beach (http://rhinocrafts.com/artists/ashley-beach/). This was just the beginning...

We arrived home and I gave the bag with the earrings to Sophie (for safe keeping) until Monday. She is 11. She appears to be capable of holding onto a small white bag for a few days...I honestly did not have a second thought about entrusting her with our special gift...

Flash forward to Sunday evening around 6. Lynn had gone to bed (not feeling well). I suggested to Sophie that we finish writing Lynn's card and get her gift together so we could give it to her in the am...Sophie proceeds to look at me, as if I had blood spurting out of my ears, and says to me, "What are you talking about?" I refreshed her memory by saying, "Sophie, we bought Mama a pair of earrings yesterday when you were at the RHINO gallery..." Her very quick response, "No we did not!!!"

The next 10 minutes are a blur. All I can say is that I am proud of myself for not using the F word as an adjective, adverb, noun, and dangling participle...when it seemed like the F word was the only word I could use to communicate my frustration, I just paused...There were several emphatic responses like, "Sophie, find the (pause, pause, pause) bag now!!!"

When I asked her how she could forget something from the day before, she responded, "Maybe I didn't forget. Maybe you're just wrong." The latter part of that exchange will be a constant refrain in the coming years...

Finally, not admitting that she remembers anything...she suggests that our house guests must have "done something with it!!!" I suggested that she call Cyndi (with lots of pauses)...Cyndi remembered a bag in the bathroom???!!! Sophie hung up the phone, walked calmly past me and said, "Oh, yeah."

The teenage years will be loads of fun. About 20 minutes after we retreated to our seperate areas...we met in the middle and apologized. Did I mention that the SAINT'S WON!!! I need to go color my hair now (extra gray coverage).

XO,

Laura