Joy

As the Meanest Mother in the World, I have meticulously spent the last week or so telling Taylor that due to all the costs involved in getting her into school, clothes, fees, etc., we just couldn't afford to get her a fun birthday gift, so we were going to get the fancy calculator she needs for geometry for her birthday gift. As the Dutiful Daughter that she is, she played along nicely, trying to understand the hard realities of family finance, trying to be respectful. Only once (and I tormented her with this DAILY) did she express dismay that school supplies are just not an acceptable birthday gift. I did my very best mom lecture on how life is full of disappointments and lots of other kids would be grateful to get a fancy calculator! So the day of her birthday she moped around. She moped while we got ready for church, she moped after church. Finally at dinner time I told her I was going to wrap her gift. Her response was why bother? She already knew what it was. I replied that at least it would make it a little bit exciting to have a pretty package to open.


So I went off to wrap her gift. I wrapped up the make up she had asked for, and signed the card from the family, on which I wrote a 7 digit number. I took her the little gift and the card, and she, still moping of course, took it and commented that it was a pretty small calculator. So she opened it up to find that it was the make up instead and made some remark about at least it's more exciting than a calculator. I pointed out the card. She read it, set it aside, and informed me I was standing in the way of her TV show. I asked her to read the card again. She read it again, smiled at the Far Side cartoon, and again set it aside. I asked her to read it again. Finally she noticed the number, but apparently didn't get it because Jack yelled out "It's a cell phone!" And she responded, "whatever." So the rest of us kind of smiled and started to laugh, so she got really excited that it was for real.

Joy - To fill with ecstatic happiness, pleasure or satisfaction.

July 26, 2009

Continuing on in my Meanest Mother in the World role, I had hidden the phone, so she had to go find it by calling the number. Naturally, Jack found it before she did and she is just so thrilled with the whole thing. We went over the rules and stipulations involved with having a phone, but I think she is up to the challenge and I am hoping this is a good opportunity for her to demonstrate her ability to be responsible.

But more importantly, how in the world did I get old enough to have a 14 year old?

Finally, when I went down to bed last night, I found Addie's best baby, Iddy, neatly tucked in for the night on my bedroom floor. When I asked Addie this morning about it, she told me that Iddy wanted to have a sleep over. How cute is that?