She just turned 8. Eight. Eight, which comes before nine, which comes before ten (10). The year I got my period.
We gave her the boots. She was wearing her underwear. I couldn't adjust the settings quick enough. And so like in this photo too, when I just simply didn't know yet how to adjust settings to get the right photo in the right light, she's blue. And old.
Too old.
For her birthday Paul Bunyan and I gave her a gift card to spend at I Tunes. Yesterday she picked out some songs.
She picked out:
1. Katy Perry's Hot n' Cold, where she calls out her boyfriend because he "PMS's like a bitch."
2. Miley Cyrus' Party In The USA, in which she describes "moving her hips like yeah."
3. Iyaz's Replay. He sings, "Who would ever knew/That we would ever be more than friends."
4. Taylor Swift's Love Story. "You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess."
5. Taylor Swift's You Belong To Me. She confesses to be "standing by and waiting at your back door," because "you belong with me."
6. Selena Gomez's "Naturally," where she espouses to "love the way you know who you are," and "that it takes [her] breath away."
She's been listening to these six songs for the last 24 hours. My head is swirling with images of boys knocking on the door, and her waiting for a boy to call...even though he's with someone else and her crying on her bed because he hasn't called. And then I see her dancing at a club and moving her body in a way that only a woman who knows not only what the word "sexy" means, but also how it actually feels.
I learned how to dance to a song about a woman named Billy Jean and I watched videos of a man who turned into a dancing werewolf and I listened to how to walk like an Egyptian. At 8, I didn't know what it meant to belong to someone, to wait for love, to have a boy take my breath away, or move my hips like "yeah". I don't think Claire understands these things either. But now that the words are on her I Pod and she's dancing her head off to them and belting out the lyrics, some day they will start to infiltrate into her head. And she will get it.
And somehow that makes me feel blue too. And all I want to do is read Fairy books with her on the couch until she leaves for college.
Oh Hussy, your little girl is growing up!! Such a beauty...you and PB will have to become 'a bad country' song in your protectiveness haha! Happy B-day Boogies :O)
ReplyDeleteOh, I know I know I know.
ReplyDeleteShelby is a tomboy now but soon won't be. And that makes me sad and scares the crap out of me.
My only daughter (4 boys) is about to turn 7. I so feel your pain...lucky for me she still listens to Veggie Tales!
ReplyDeleteI must say that your blog title...rocks! Kim
if it's any consolation, at least she will 'get it' with such a good foundation to base her choices on. of course there will be some bad choices, but she's going to have a leg up on lots of kids.
ReplyDeletei grew up singing my heart out to all kinds of crazy songs that meant nothing to me other than i liked the sound. for example, 'Short People Got No Reason to Live'. geezum - almost every single fabulous important person in my life is short! and that song reminds me of a irrelavent story.
As a family growing up, we'd occasionally ski in the Poconos. sis & i with dad, young brother with hesitant mom. tim was about your daughter's age, and mom liked to keep him ahead of her in her sights. however one trip down she lost him and he wasn't at the lift waiting for her. she asked the next skier who arrived if she had happened to pass a little boy singing 'Short People'. the woman looked at my mom and said "no...but i did just pass a little boy singing 'I Love You Just the Way You Are'".
I'm so putting that song on Claire's I Pod.
ReplyDeleteShe's beautiful, and I know that feeling of wanting to simultaneously shoo them out into the world to experience great things but also hide them away to keep them from not-so-great things. It sounds like she's got a great team assembled though. Lucky her, for real.
ReplyDelete