It's like it happened over night...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmEG1a-g1cM

I LOVE this song/video for so many reasons...

Shared it with Mom and Dad knowing they could relate having both of us as teenage daughters (!) - they said Mom had that vest outfit from the 70's and we had the little striped terry outfit.  I remember both!  I also remember the exact scenario over and over again of us walking out of our rooms and either Mom or Dad saying "ah no, go change - you're not wearing that."  Remember the awesome green swimsuit I wanted to buy in the Caymans and Dad said a big, fat N O.  And the hair from the 80's...and the station wagon with fake wood on the side! 

And now I am the mother of a teenage daughter (and son!) that is heading into her senior year.  "It's like it happened overnight, we're always wrong, they're always right.  We used to be the ones breaking the rules.  Now we're just mothers and we're just fathers of teenage daughters." 

It did happen overnight.  All of a sudden she is almost grown up, but to me it's like it was yesterday that she would follow me around our kitchen in Cottage Grove with a stool (so she could see the countertop) saying "I do it."  Now she wants to go out every night and her friends are very important.  I get it...I just don't have to love it.  Emma has been E A S Y to raise...I'm not ready for her to leave the nest.  I already am missing her!

I am so excited for her, but I am so sad about how quickly it all went.  18 years is not enough of her in our home.  I love my teenage daughter.

Heidi