Salad Days: Laurel turns 8

Laurel was 7 going on 17. Now she is 8 going on 18. My sweet, precocious girl celebrated her 8th birthday in November. I have acutely felt her growing up this year. She wants to be older. She wants to grow up. Despite all of my threats and bribes to try and keep her "my little girl", she forges ahead into "tween-hood" too early.

Last week she built a fairy house out of papers, put a little bed in it and a sign that read "Fairies welcome". We then stood outside in the dark in 40 degree winds to set up house complete with a button path. Due to my extreme dislike of cold, this is something that I might normally balk at and try to talk her into waiting until the next morning. But here was the "little" in my girl coming out and I was grabbing every second of it, even while freezing my buns off! (It was so cold that I didn't even get pictures!) When the paper house was pounded by wind during the night she requested something sturdier to build a new one. I've offered her at least 3 boxes, but it seems the "big" has moved back in and she has gone back to focusing on perfecting her outfits and singing tween-ish songs. I know it's all part of the process of growing up. Give them wings, blah, blah, blah... Roots is what I want to focus on at the moment!

While this part has been hard, Laurel still loves me more than a googol every night at bedtime and she did asked for a doll for her birthday. She does well in school and loves to hang out with her friends. Laurel looks up to Sierra and continues to smother Cadence with love (much to Cadence's dismay at times). While she is growing up a bit too fast for my taste, I feel like such a lucky mom to be the person who gets to watch her do it!

Laurel had begged for a Jasmine outfit when we were in Disney world. I refused to pay the Disney world price for it but found a great deal online when we got home. We gave it to Laurel as an early birthday present so that she could wear it for Halloween. Ever since she got "Lizzy" last year she has wanted another American Girl doll to be friends with Lizzy. So we now have Emma who keeps Lizzy company while Laurel is at school.

We didn't do a big party (although Laurel is still planning for one!) but went on a girls' weekend to DC. A friend of mine has a daughter named Laurel who was born just a few weeks after our Laurel. Spur of the moment we decided to take them to DC for the weekend. Sierra and Cadence spent the weekend with grandparents and cousins. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much one on one time with my middle child. "Laurel squared" enjoyed ice skating, swimming at the hotel, art museums, and climbing on statues. We even got to check off one of my bucket list items: eating at DC cupcakes in Georgetown! So glad that I got to do this with my mature, sweet, loving 8 year old whom I love more than a googol!