The Daughter is now a teenager. She’s 5 feet, 9 inches, or 1.75 meters, tall. She is enjoying middle school pretty well after the adjustment period. Among other things, she’s figured out it’s easier to take the “blue” bus to Western Avenue then take the #10 regular CDTA bus than to take the crowded “brown” bus which would take her a block from our house.
She is extremely talented. She created this little paper box for her mother for Valentine’s Day. It’s full of little pictures of my wife, including some in her childhood, plus pictures of herself, me and the cats. It must have been very time-consuming.
For me, she got this large box. But it was a ruse, because it was filled with a dozen and a half strips of paper on why she cares for me. The initial tag said, “I couldn’t think of anything,” but she was kidding:
You wake me up [not always easy]
You love cats [actually a drawing of a cat rather than the word]
You make good pancakes
You help me leave for school
You give me money
We watch the news
You help me with my homework [probably my #1 task for her]
You tolerate your life [I do not know what that means]
You play Sorry [board game]
You play Uno [card game]
Supergirl [we watched the TV series together]
You and I Love Lucy [she’s been watching the box set]
You are FUN
Your wisdom
You force me to go to bed
You read to me
*You love me [that, I do]
She has a strong sense of justice, and likes to participate in working on houses with a church group, or the like.
She presently has two bedrooms, one tiny one where she sleeps, and the somewhat (SOMEWHAT?) untidy room where her clothes are. She tends to do her crafts there.
We had promised her a phone months, before she went to middle school, but she did not get one until Christmas. She likes playing a particular game that involves finding three-, four-, and five letter words from a set of five or six letters.
Right now, she says she wants to be a lawyer, but I think she’ll do something more artistic. Maybe she’ll do both.
Happy natal day, dear daughter.
Also for ABC Wednesday, Round 20