I Don't Have to Guess

We had such a great time with our daughters at their university's Parent's Weekend. Personally, I think there should be a Parents Week...a weekend isn't nearly long enough.

I love walking into the airport inSouth Carolina and seeing my girl with the bright blue eyes and dancing smile. Can I really have children old enough to be picking me up at the airport? Wasn't I just in a car pool line collecting them from preschool? I guess not.

We hug. We grab our luggage. We hug some more. We walk outside and there is my other girl with the bright blue eyes and dancing smile waiting with the car. We hug and she takes us to her apartment. Can I really have children old enough to live in an apartment? Weren't they just using every quilt and blanket I own to build a fort in the family room? I guess not.

We go downtown for dinner and have a wonderful family meal in a restaurant called Smoke on the Water. The girls with the bright blue eyes and dancing smiles have booked a table there. Can I really have children old enough to organize dinner reservations? Weren't they just happily stirring up cookie batter while standing on a chair in my kitchen? I guess not.

Saturday dawns and the sky is the bluest shade of blue with not a cloud in sight. The temperature is perfection. We meander around the beautiful campus to the sorority tailgate luncheon. Barbeque and friends and girls in dresses and sunshine. We catch up with the parents of roomates and we are united in our confusion. Can I really have a child who is graduating from college this year? Weren't we just moving her into that very first dorm room, crying as we got back on a plane to England...wondering what in the world we were doing leaving our first born baby on this side of the ocean while we were on the other? I guess not.

Soon our girl2 with the big blue eyes and the dancing smile joins us and she is wearing her official cheerleading uniform and we laugh at the school logo temporarily tattooed on her soft sweet cheek. Can I really have a child old enough to perform on a college cheerleading team? Wasn't she just scaring the living daylights out of us with three sets of stitches before her third birthday, with the fearless way in which she would careen down the wooden steps of our house, with her daredevil look mom no hands! trick that she loved to perform on the brand new bicycle she only that day had learned to ride? I guess not.

We go to the game with our girl1 with the big blue eyes and the dancing smile and we sit on the front row. The three of us watch our girl2 with the big blue eyes and the dancing smile as she jumps and lifts and laughs and flies on the field. And we hold our breath and our faces ache from smiling. Can I really have a child who is old enough to stand on a football field in a university stadium? Wasn't she just sitting on my lap while I read Brown Bear Brown Bear to her for the 98th time? I guess not.

Later we go to dinner with the girls with the big blue eyes and the dancing smiles and friends come too and a boyfriend. Can I really have a child who is old enough for a boyfriend? Wasn't she just six years old, promising to take her Daddy to her highschool prom? I guess not.

Sunday comes too fast too soon and its time to get back on a plane and go home and leave the girls with the bright blue eyes and the dancing smiles once again. Time to give hugs and kisses and parting words of wisdom about work and life and fun and balance and God and love. Can I really have children who are old enough to live on their own, manage their own schedules and commitments, make their own decisions, who are best friends and look out for one another? Wasn't I just driving them to ballet? Sitting thru a piano lesson? Supervising homework? Building a sandcastle? Tucking them into bed? I guess not.

Can I really have children who are slowly but surely standing in the world of nearly all grown up?

I guess so.

Is it wonderful and astonishing and mind boggling and scary and bittersweet and amazing?

I don't have to guess.

I know.

Not Out of the Box

We were so in the box yesterday...the corporate box that is. My husband's company has a suite at Giants Stadium and we were lucky enough to get to go to a game on Sunday. Of course the Giants were playing in Tampa Bay so we were there to see the Jets in action. You'll want to pay attention here...it was retro day so the Jets were calling themselves the Titans since that was their name for a couple of years back in the sixties. And yesterday the 'NY Titans' were playing the Titans as in Tennessee Titans except the Tennessee Titans were calling themselves the Oilers because they were the Houston Oilers once upon a time. Whew! I think I understand now why the Brits find American football confusing.

It drizzled rain most of the day so I was especially happy to be in the box. I'm an Eagles fan but we rooted for the Jets since they were the home team. And also because we were surrounded by Jets fans and it might have gotten ugly. Here are some of the boys warming up. I'm pretty sure Jillian would be calling them sissies and telling them to work it...

And she'd be giving this one an earful about his bent knees...

Hey I look just like the Titans aka Jets when I do that cross abdominal move in Level 2.

Can someone please explain the hair to me??? I think every team in the NFL now has a player with very long hair hanging out of their helmet. I mean forget grabbing the face mask and risking a penalty...any girl could tell you to go for a handful of the hair if you want to inflict some real pain.

As the Titans ran onto the field there may have been a little booing...hey, it's New York people. Well, actually it's New Jersey but the New York teams play on this side of the bridge. When the Jets ran onto the field there was a whole lot of wild cheering and also some very cool effects involving fire.

It wasn't just the players in retro uniforms yesterday...the refs were wearing the old AFL jerseys too...they are orange and white striped instead of the more modern black and white. Of course back in 1963 not many people had colored tv in their homes so I guess they would have looked black and white. Wow. Remember when we didn't have colored tv? And I might sound like I know what I'm talking about throwing around words like AFL but actually the box was filled with guys who knew a lot of football trivia. I'm just educating the masses here. This ref looks like he's all set to lead the Hokey Pokey.

Another thing I learned at the game yesterday? No daughter of mine will be wearing a Jets cheerleading uniform in my lifetime. That's all I'm saying about that.

Although I do give these girls credit for being plucky...they danced their hearts out with big smiles on their faces for the entire game in the icky drizzling rain all while wearing not alot. And I hugely admired their ability to jump for 20 consecutive minutes...Something tells me these girls wouldn't even break a sweat in the 30 day shred.

What else? Oh I haven't mentioned the food. The food is the best part of the corporate seating if you ask me. They had cheesesteaks y'all. I grew up in the land of the cheesesteak (that's Philadelphia in case you didn't know) and a cheesesteak is not something the Brits do well so its been a long time since I've had a good one. Actually there was a whole wonderful buffet of great things to eat and then at halftime they brought in a big tray of Mrs. Fields cookies. I sent my husband over to knock one or two kids out of the way so we'd be sure to get one before they were all gone. Hey, professional football brings out a little bit of the aggressive in all of us right?

Long story short (sort of)...the Jets won. Or the Titans depending on which era's team names we're talking. It was a good game too and the Jets are now 3-0 which apparently they haven't been in a number of seasons. As we were leaving the stadium we heard one die hard Jets fan proclaim, "Yes!!! We are going to the Superbowl this year for sure!" There is nothing in the world quite like the optimism of American sports fans. Ya gotta love it.

The Cheeky One

I love the word cheeky. You hear that word alot in England and it sometimes has a negative connotation but very often when a child is referred to as a 'cheeky monkey' it means they are naughty but in an endearing sort of way. Hello Daughter 2!

Our daughter2 will celebrate her 19th birthday this week. Away from home. At college. Surrounded by friends because this child is always surrounded by friends. I wrote a post about my hubs on his birthday recently and let me just say the apple didn't fall far from the tree here. This sweet girl has always been so full of life beginning with the moment she entered this world screaming like nobody's business.

She was a beautiful baby. And I know I'm her mother and all mothers say their baby is beautiful but this one y'all...she was truly a beautiful baby. A perfect head, strong and healthy and curious...and the eyes...oh my the eyes. They could get you past any naughty thing she ever did. Big and blue and twinkly. And it was a good thing too because have I mentioned this one was just a little bit cheeky? Let's just say she loved to have the last word from an early age and she spent more than a few minutes of her young life 'sitting on the step'.

As a toddler she made my hair gray. Literally. I honestly wasn't sure I was gonna survive her 'let me leap and then look' approach to life. (Again, see post on husband). This little girl entered this world with more confidence than most people develop in a lifetime. All her life I've been asked about it starting with her very first preschool teacher who informed me that, 'A more confident child I have never known in my 23 years of working with preschoolers.' Now I think we can all agree that confidence is a good thing. Determination, drive, passion, spirit...these are wonderful qualities that most adults wish they possessed. In a toddler though...they can make day to day life a bit challenging. A battle of the wills. When she was a little girl I prayed every day that God would somehow use these qualities in her. And I'm pretty sure by 'use' I meant that He would squash them.

But you know what? Those qualities in a little one that make the day to day parenting never dull but completely exhausting? Those same qualities in a teenager are a beautiful thing. In a young adult living away from home they are essential. This is a child who rises to a challenge. Who is completely focused. Who knows her mind. Who loves God wholeheartedly. Who doesn't do things halfway. Who challenges herself. Who believes she can do anything she puts her mind to.

Just like she did when she was three years old.

We moved to England just before daughter2's 13th birthday. While the rest of us were coming to grips with the fact that we'd just had a major life change and were slowly adjusting to life across the pond, Daughter2 was living and loving it all. Every moment. She didn't want to miss a single minute. She hit the ground running and never looked back. She could have wallowed just a bit and it would have been completely understandable. But this one...she loves life and is willing to go where it takes her and to embrace every new experience.

This past spring she phoned home with 'something to tell us'. If you don't have college kids you maybe can't relate to the bazillion thoughts that pass through your brain when you get a call like that but those thoughts? They are doozies. So we braced ourselves for who knows what and she says, 'I wanted to tell you that I tried out for cheerleading and I made the team.' Huh? What? Cheerleading? Now this doesn't sound like much I know but my daughter2 has never ever in her entire life been involved in cheerleading. And most cheerleaders have been cheerleading and involved in gymnastics for many years before getting to college. Not this sweet thing. My husband and I laugh and say she just woke up one day and said, 'hmm today I think I'll be a cheerleader.' And she would never for a moment doubt that she could do it. And so she does. And this is her approach to life always. And I love that. I love to see how God took her sweet 'cheeky' spirit and has shaped and molded her into a remarkable young adult. And in the process I've been changed as well. This child has been handed some challenges in this life and she has met them head on with courage and determination and humor. This one has taught me a few things y'all.

Oh, and one more thing about miss sweetness...she has always loved her mama fiercely. Some of my happiest memories of living abroad were trips each December when daughter2 and I would travel with a few other moms and daughters to the Christmas markets in Germany. We've shopped and eaten and laughed and talked (especially talked!) our way through Stuttgart and Nuremberg and Dresden. She will hate that I've put this picture on here because we both look so... cold? Is that the word I'm looking for? It was absolutely arctic-cold in Dresden that December! But I like it. I think of happiness and chatter and mother-daughterness.

A daughter's love.

Could there be anything sweeter in the whole wide world?

I think not.

Happy Birthday to my 'cheeky little monkey'....she knows I say it with a smile.

Wordless Wednesday...Look Mom! No Hands!

That's my girl. Actually the 'no hands' bit means she's got a lot of her Daddy in her too!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts visit 5 minutes for mom