Logan's Growing Up

...and this is how I know:

She used air quotes yesterday. And she used them correctly. I was helping with her homework which she was rushing through. "Hey. Can you use your best handwriting? C'mon, babe, that's just sloppy."

She sighed impatiently and began to erase. "Now I have to do it again because some-body wants it (airquotes here) 'per-fect'."

"Where did you learn that?" I inquired, but...ahem...I think I know. Sometimes it's like I'm looking in the mirror...

I was fascinated the other day listening to her and a friend in the backseat. "Oooh, you like him don't you?"

"Okay, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell ANYBODY." And then they began to whisper, and giggle, a lot. It made me smile. I remember so well a thousand conversations just like that with my own childhood friends. Just like looking in a mirror...

...until it's not. Like when she asked me if she could start wearing a bra. A bra?! Why are we already talking about bras? Unlike her I was in no hurry to grow up. She, on the other hand, can not wait. "No! Those are not for kids," I replied.

"No. I don't mean a real bra. I mean, like, a kid's bra." Which left me wondering what does she know about kid's bras anyway?

...but then again, where does she get any of this stuff. Like the idea that she is going to get a car when she turns sixteen?

"I can't wait to turn sixteen 'cause that's when I can drive and I'll get a car," she mentioned on the drive to her soccor game.

Interested, I played along. "Oh, really? And just what kind of car are you going to get?"

"Oh...probably one like Nancy Drew's. You know, where the top comes down?"

"A convertible?"

"Yeah. One of those probably."

"Uh, honey. I hate to tell you this, but you're not getting a car when you turn sixteen."

"What????" The shock of it raised her voice at least one octave.

"Yeah. We're not buying you a car."

"But, but--That's when I can drive."

"Right. You can drive my car once in a while."

"Your car??" Her voice was heavy with disgust. "I don't want to drive your car..."

Most of the time I can't believe we are already having these conversations. Will I always feel like that? Will I ever be ready for her to wear a bra? Will it surprise me when she is ready to date or ready to leave for college? Will I ever be ready for her to get married or have babies of her own? I doubt it, because I'm understanding what my mother used to say: It's like I just turned around and she is grown.

Maybe I'll feel better if I use airquotes around that..."grown"...yeah, that's better. "Grown" is a lot easier to swallow than grown, because we aren't done just yet, whether she would agree or not.