Daughter's 12th Birthday

Yesterday my second daughter turned 12.  Some words I would use to describe her:

• brilliant
• funny
• confident
• quirky
• competitive
• adventurous
• friendly
• unique
• self-motivated
• a “negotiator”

This is the daughter who sang a Weird Al song at the school’s talent show.  Who fought through her anxiety and stepped up to pitch for her girl’s softball team.  Who would rather do a class project alone and do 10 times the work than join a group and have to suffer through anyone’s lack of commitment.  Who loves Greek Mythology, remembers a high percentage of what she learns, yearns to travel, and always rises to a challenge.  She makes friends with kids in EVERY social group, which sometimes gets her into trouble when she gets put in the middle.  She chose to play oboe in the school band, because it’s just that little bit of “different” that she loves.  She comes home regularly with bruises from PE because she is always going at full-tilt.  Her PE coach has asked her on numerous occasions, “You’re going out for basketball/volleyball/ANYTHING next year, right?”

I’m not much of a “party mom” when it comes to birthdays (I’m not *against* parties, heavens no, I’m just super lazy and frankly don’t like other kids as much as I like my own), and thank goodness my children have come to be satisfied with small, meaningful days spent celebrating their birth.  Yesterday we were able to spend some great family time with our daughter and find ways to make her feel special.

Dad got doughnuts and chocolate milk in the morning – ALWAYS a fun Saturday morning breakfast.

My daughter got to spend unlimited time on the computer, which put her into Neopets and Pirates Online nirvana.

She then went to babysit for some little girls whom she just adores, and their mother was very kind and generous to her.  (Erica – you make Maddy feel so great!)

Then I took her out to get a long-awaited and much-needed haircut.  Here she is before (a late-night picture taken during a “sleepover” in her older sister’s room):

…and here she is after!:

I think she looks adorable!  It might be hard to tell from this picture, but it’s a cute little “pixie”-type cut, with gel/spiky stuff going on in the back.  There were 2 women at the salon yesterday, and the woman cutting her hair seemed excited about the change.  The other woman, though, said directly to me, “I would never let my daughters get their hair cut that short.”  Whatever!  It was absolutely, positively what my daughter wanted, and I think she carries it very well.

With her birthday money, we went shopping after the haircut and she got some jewelry, make-up, and a very cute bag.  I seem to remember letting our oldest daughter start wearing make-up at 12 years old.  She was transitioning into the youth program at church and junior high at school, and it just seemed like a reasonable time to let her mature.  When my husband saw the make-up for our second daughter, though, he wasn’t so sure it was time!  But after a brief tutorial, she did a great job with it today, and I definitely don’t think it’s too much or too soon.

After shopping, we came home and had the dinner of her choice – chicken patty sandwiches with seasoned curly fries and soda.  Then she opened her presents:  the first two books of the Prydain Chronicles, the 4th and 5th Harry Potter movies, some gum and candy, and her own little mp3 player.  I was so excited to give her the mp3 player, because I knew she’d be surprised, and I knew she would be so excited about it.  And she was.  For a “beginner” player, I have been very pleased with our purchase, a 1G RCA Pearl.  It was very affordable, sounds great, and is insanely easy to use.  We even gave her $10 worth of song downloads from amazon.com.

You should have seen how my daughter got herself all gussied up for church today – fixing her hair just right, wearing just the right jewelry, putting her make-up on so carefully.  It was very sweet, and she looked beautiful.  And so grown-up!  Which makes a tiny little spot in my stomache – and my heart – ache.

You might also enjoy these related posts from Tree, Root, and Twig:

1. Birthday Dinner
2. Abza Dabza’s Birthday!
3. Happy 7th Birthday, My Boy!!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.