Anna's eleven!

It's common to measure our age by that of our oldest child.  For instance, my neighbor is exactly 11 days younger than I, yet her oldest child is 15.  Mine is 11.  Clearly, my neighbor is the older of the two of us.

Yet I'm not feeling that young with an eleven year old in our midst.  She's not a little girl anymore.  Not by a long shot.  Gosh, I hope I can weather the transition from pint-sized kids to supersized kids with grace.  There's so much more at stake.

Anna requested a cheesecake for her birthday dessert.  I happily obliged.  A lover of seafood, she requested Red Lobster for her birthday meal, and going to see the Lego movie as the family activity.  We don't do parties every year but I think our celebration was ample enough to satisfy.  I requested a wish list, reminding her that it was not a checklist, only a guideline so I don't end up spending money on something that misses the mark completely, like an Elsa princess costume.  Her top choice was an iPod touch, something that made sense, since Tim's old one had been sitting around since he upgraded this past year.  But, after careful consideration, Tim and I felt that the time was not right for our daughter to have her own mobile device.  Though we realize we'll have to make that transition sooner or later, later felt right at this stage, thankfully.  We warned her ahead of time, so she could avoid the anticipation and resulting disappointment of not getting the number one item on her list.  She got an iPod nano instead, which she subsequently filled with tunes that are way cooler than the noise we subject her to.

Each year as our children get older, they are endowed with a new 'privilege' and likewise, a new responsibility.  At eleven, Anna got an email address(though trying to find one that didn't require her to be 13 was more challenging than expected).  Still, we feel safer knowing she can communicate without google collecting all sorts of data on her activity.  She also "gets" to do her own laundry.  Happy day for me!   It's amazing how kids' eyes are opened as we parents turn responsibilities over to them.  Anna went from throwing every stinkin' (or not stinkin' at all) article of clothing down the laundry chute to going two weeks without running a load.  Now that she's doing the work, those clothes don't seem so dirty anymore, I guess.  Ah, kids.

Anna's pretty darn special.  She's started taking a liking to younger children.  Anytime we have Eve's friends over(or even younger kids, for that matter), she will coordinate their entertainment so naturally it astounds me.  When most kids are becoming more self-centered, she is developing her confidence and reaching out as never before.  It's really a sweet sight to behold.  She's become quite the gymnast this past year and spends much of her time on the trampoline perfecting her back handsprings.  She spends the rest of her "free time" at the piano bench or curled up with a book that is way beyond her grade level(at least some things never change).  We found out that she qualified to go to the junior high school next year for seventh grade math, an achievement about which I have mixed feelings.  Is it so much to ask to avoid that place for another year?  Stay little, Anna.  Pretty please?