My daughter has grown an entire inch since September; she's now just a tiny bit shy of my height. I admit, that's not a high mark to reach -- but it is disconcerting to see my baby girl looking so grown up these days.
She has finally surpassed the 80-pound mark, too - so her dad and I are starting to loosen up on restricting her to the back seat of the car. With the cold weather, she's been appreciative of that, as our front seats are the ones with the "tushie-warmers."
So she was seated beside me during most of the marathon shopping I did last week. We had just finished our "intake meeting" for Bat Mitzvah preparation with our cantor and were on our way to Target to pick up some last minute items, when Megan announced that she thought she should start shaving her legs.
As proof, she held one of them up (in the way that only the flexible young - and gymnasts - and flexible young gymnasts can do while seated in a moving vehicle). To my surprise, it was pretty hairy. I had to admit she was right.
"Okay, let's get you some shaving gel while we're in the store," I said.
She will be thirteen in a little over four months. It's time. I've already told her that it would be okay for her to wear a little makeup, if she wants to. So far, she doesn't seem to care about that. And that's okay, too.
I'm proud of the way she's turning out. She's in no hurry to grow up and seems to be happy with being a kid still. But she is becoming assertive about letting the world know she's no longer a baby. For instance, when we dine out, she now refuses the children's menu (even though she still refuses to eat most of the dishes offered adults).
She did it again this morning as we were seated for a hotel breakfast and the hostess was too quick for my request to get a kids' menu anyway. Sure enough, my kid wanted the buffet - which is half the price for young people age 12 and under -- and at a San Francisco hotel, that's a significant discount.
"But I'm almost 13!" she said.
"But for the next four months, you're still 12," I pointed out.
"I think you should let them know Maddy is a kid, too," my daughter sulked. Her cousin, who is traveling with us, is nine months older and she doesn't want any of us to forget that.
"I don't think I can pass for twelve any more," Maddy said.
"Yes you can," my daughter argued.
They went on like this for a few minutes.
I think my daughter is right on this one -- I know a lot of 12-year-olds who look way older than either of these two. But I have tried to teach my kid to be honest, and so tend not to fudge on her age. The only time I did so was on our last visit to Disneyland, where they now charge you he the adult price after the age of TEN. I think this is a really greedy change of the 12-and-under policy that had always been in place before, but if I'm going to stick with this honesty and ethics thing I say I care about, I should be more ashamed of that than I am.
When the waiter took our order, I let him know that one of the girls was 12 and the other one was not. But I think he charged us for both of them at the kids' price, anyway -- which was really nice of him.
That would never happen at Disneyland.
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