Fifteen

We celebrated MJ's 15th birthday last Saturday.

Let me just repeat that for myself: MJ—that tiny bundle I carried, nursed, walked endlessly, and so on—is FIFTEEN. Wow. That is hard to take in!

This event inspired some rather philosophical thinking and writing on my part—rather florid passages full of driving metaphors (she is signed up for driver training!)—but I'll spare you all that and move right on to describing her big day.

MJ had two main birthday requests once we'd whittled out the really expensive items: to accompany Frank to New Orleans when he goes next month, and to get her nose pierced. I'm not sure which request was more of a pinch (and I'm not talking about the pain she felt when they stuck her), but we came through for her. She is now sporting a small horseshoe-shaped bit of jewelry in her left nostril, and she and Frank will soon be heading down for a long week in the Big Easy.

The whole nose-piercing thing was an interesting unschooling challenge for us. It's so much easier to support your kids' choices when your kids are 9 or 10 and choosing to wear mismatched socks. :-) But we stuck to our guns, put our money where our mouths (and her nose) are, cowboyed up, and did the right thing. It looks better than I thought it would, and I'm happy she's happy with it (faint praise, I know—sorry MJ!).

After her encounter with the needle, we went to Baskin Robbins for a birthday ice cream cone. This is a tradition for her birthday, adopted in Slidell, LA, the summer Katrina blew through, when there wasn't much more to do for her birthday than go to B&R, because that was the only place open! Frank and I were reflecting on how quickly the last two years have gone. I asked the girls if it seemed fast to them. No.

But for us old(er) folks, it's been an eyeblink. Actually, MJ's entire 15 years have been an eyeblink. There's some part of my brain that still "knows" I have two toddlers at home. I have pictures on my desk at work—taken that winter we lived in Destin, FL, when MJ was 4 and Chloe, not quite 3—and those adorable little girls are still the ones I somehow expect to see when I get home from work at night.

Maybe it's time for some new pictures. :-)

Anyway, we closed out the day with a small extended-family party having breakfast for dinner at IHOP. She had candles in her pancakes and some laughs with her cousins. Pretty fun!