By Shannon Magsam
Ladybug went for a well-child checkup on Friday (only six months late since she’s 9 ½ now) and I found out she’s only FOUR inches shorter than me. As in, I’m only FOUR inches taller than her.
Of course, I realize I’m only 4’11” but STILL. Girl is getting tall! The pediatrician was even impressed by how much she’s shot up since the last visit.
My little ladybug has also started getting a few “blemishes” on her face. I admit to being a little surprised by this, but I see little bumps occasionally on some of the other girls her age at school. I don’t remember getting blemishes until about the sixth grade, but my memory is notoriously bad, so maybe it was that early.
In an act of sisterly solidarity (I suppose), my own face is starting to break out like a chocoholic 15-year-old. The pediatrician told my daughter she needed to start washing her twice a day. She had no advice for me. Even the fancy blemish-fighting moisturizer I use once a month isn’t cutting it. Must be hormones.
It seems like everywhere I look lately, I’m reminded how much my little girl is growing up. I was at the NWA Mall the other day and felt so sad that the Eagle play area had been removed. We’ve lived here since Ladybug was born and logged a LOT of hours at that play area. Of course, she’s been taller than the Eagle for quite some time now.
Even if she could still hang out at the Chick-fil-A play area or at some of our other old faves, I noticed she’s not quite playing the same lately. At the park last week, I noticed she was much more subdued and less run-around-like-a-crazy-person-ish.
She enjoyed hanging out with me, talking, rather than sliding or swinging.
It made her mama a little sad.
But then? Yesterday we went to the park. It was so beautiful, the perfect weather. We took the dog and wandered about all over. She wanted to swing. She wanted to hang on the bars.
She wanted to go to the top of the hill and rolled all the way down, laughing. Over and over again.
It brought back more memories from when I was a girl of about 10. I remembered how my emotions seemed to be sitting on a teeter-totter: little girl on one side, aspiring teen on the other. And nobody, neither child nor mama, being able to tell which side would be up or down.
Shannon Magsam is mom to 9-year-old Ladybug, married to Ladybug’s dad, John, and co-creator of nwaMotherlode.com. To read previously published installments of Life With Ladybug, click here.
