ELEVEN

It's a bit of an awkward age. One day you're watching Nickelodeon and playing Littlest Pet Shop. The next day, you're trying to straighten your own hair. It's the age where you transition from being the big kids at the elementary school to being the little kids ("awww...look how cute they are..." say the 7th graders) in middle school. It's the age where there are more non-toys on your Christmas list than there are toys, but it's still the toys that really excite you. It's the age where you need braces and deoderant.

When you get a group of 11-year old girls together, you get a lot of noise - shrill voices, raucous laughter, singing that sounds more like shouting. When you get a group of 11-year old girls together, you hear a lot of talk about boys, always including words like "ugly, disgusting, stupid, annoying" following by hushed whispers and quiet giggles.

Today, #2 turned 11. When it was time to get dressed, she asked what shoes would match her new top best and asked me to straighten her hair in the back where she couldn't reach. Her first "gift" of the day was getting a pedicure with a BFF. They talked and laughed the entire time the nail techs were painting polka dots on their toes. Tonight, I took her and four friends for pizza and a movie. I let the girls have their own table at the restaurant, watched them order their own food and serve themselves. I sat behind them at the movies, watching them whisper to each other about funny parts and squirm during the parts that made us all cry.

This side of eleven is one that I love. Yes, they're awkward and loud. But when a familiar song came on the radio and all five of them were singing at the top of their lungs, I honestly wanted to keep on driving rather than turn in the driveway. When they were playing tag inside the house, I just waited out the squeals and tried to stay out of the way of 10 running and sliding feet. Eleven-year-old girls love life. They're not yet consumed by clothes or hair or make-up, they're not yet obsessed with thoughts of which boys are hot, they're not disrespectful or know-it-alls. They still like me, each other, and themselves. They're just trying to squeeze in as much fun - playing with dolls, jumping on the trampoline, shrieking with laughter - as they can. I almost think they're aware of what's coming. I know I am. And it's not all that fun from a mom's perspective. So for now, I'm enjoying this side of eleven.

It's going to be a long night. Those four friends are spending the night. Right now, it's 11:30 and they're getting set up for Guitar Hero. They'll be up and down the stairs a dozen times after midnight. They'll burst out in a fresh round of laughter just when I think they've finally gone to sleep. They probably won't go to sleep until 3 or 4 a.m. But it's all good. They're just eleven.

HAPPY ELEVENTH BIRTHDAY, #2! I LOVE YOU!