Birthday Girl

Hannah’s birthday is in a week. FU-UCK! We haven’t bought anything for her yet. We haven’t made any plans for a party. *starting to panic* Hannah has had a wide range of party ideas, though:

• toting her friends to an amusement park an hour away (no, because we could only fit 2 other kids in our car)


• taking her friends to see Pirates of the Caribbean (has possibilities, but we did a movie bday last year)


• camping in a tent

John might go for #3, but I see several hurdles—we don’t have a tent, we wouldn’t know how to set one up if we did, and it has been raining for almost 2 weeks, so there’s no guarantee of sunny or at least dry weather.

Hannah helpfully went to the Barbie website and made a wishlist that looks like a Toys R Us ad. There’s no way I’m going to get her Barbie shampoo or a real vacuum cleaner (in pink). If she wants to vacuum, I can certainly hook her up with our Hoover (not pink).

I asked her if she thought 10 would be much different from 9. “Well, there’s puberty.” Yes, well, I had failed to take that into consideration. 10 will probably be *way* different from 9. At school, they are doing a unit on puberty in social studies. I’ve been pleased that Hannah brings up stuff they have talked about in school, or asks me questions based on it. I don’t want to be a squeamish parent, so I make it a point to answer questions as straightforward and *factually* as possible. So far, so good.

Now that the paper is behind me, I can wash the dishes or vacuum or think about anything but the paper and not feel guilty. Good times. Also, more hygienic times. :-)