Pre-teen Angst

Skylar is 10. Eleven in September. Going on 18. This is cute and frightening all at the same time; autism has kept her in a fog somewhat in her verbal and social skills. They're emerging, along with hormones, at interesting moments! It's hard for her because she often acts like she's 8, is actually 10, and looks like she's
14. Seriously. Restaurants that have kids meals up to age 12 don't give me one for her unless I ask, and then they give me the eye like I"m lying! In addition, the boys are starting to notice (gasp with me, won't you?!) At those moments I'm thankful for Skylar's continued naivte, though I'm certain it won't last forever. One example: we were in Walmart a month or two ago and this boy probably 12 or so was sitting on the bench outside the hair-cutting place, watched us from check-out til we were out the door. Yikes....

Finally, Sky has taken to reminding me how big she is. Hannah (who still wants to climb back into the womb she's such a mama's girl) was trying to get me to hold her recently; she asked Skylar--who is almost 5'2--if she wanted me to try to hold her, and Sky's response (in her dry, no smiling, no inflection voice) was "Hannah, I'm tall AND I'm ten." OMG. Then Sunday she put on a new dress I'd gotten her at Target that, again, was totally cute and modest but made her look 14. I had to tie it in the back and her response was "Mawm...I can do things ya know..."

Geez Louise I'm not ready!