preview of my life

I was able to spend the entire day yesterday with two of my very adorable + entertaining much younger family members: ages 5 and 11. It was such a dynamic day between the age differences and the conversations and all that shopping we managed to accomplish in a three hour window of time (we finished up just in time to go see Monsters v. Aliens 3D - very good!) Throughout the entire day, I kept thinking to myself about the future and if scenes like this would be playing out soon for Sidney and me. I could just picture me driving her and her sister/friend/cousin around shopping and having our "mini-girl-talks". It was eye-opening, really.

Basically, it scared the shit out of me because I realized I'm going to be dealing with teenaged girls someday...OH DEAR GOD. Teenage girls?! Is there anything more frightening than a teenage girl (A: yes, two teenage girls TOGETHER!) I'm going to be driving the car listening to all that talk of "oh my god", "no way", "totally", and the way they say "like" in front of every situation. I'm pretty sure every girl goes through that valley-girl stage where they're trying to fill out their vocabulary with some extra spice and zing: it's only a few years later that we realize we just sound like talking barbie idiots (and for those that still haven't realized it, sorry I just spilled the beans)!

In so many ways, I'm looking forward to watching Sidney grow and change. I cannot wait to see what kind of person she is going to become after she survives our parenting techniques (it shall be interesting nonetheless). But I'm not looking forward to those loud, noisy, obnoxious teenage years - it drives me crazy to be out in public and overhear a group of girls chattering away (while texting the person sitting two seats down...DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THAT ONE). I know it's all a part of life and we all go through it in some form or fashion. I've just never thought about it from a parent's perspective. How did my mother do it?!

The teen years are far away at this moment. We've still not made it to the second birthday, yet. But if her sharing habits don't improve much between now and then, I'm going to have one of the bitchiest teens on the block. YEE-HAW.