Double Digits

Doodle turns 10 at 9:45 or so tonight (or, as she pointed out, 9:45 this morning since she was born in China)*. Ten appears to be one of those milestone birthdays, and I find myself spending a lot of time today thinking about both the past and the future. My kids' birthday are always a bit bittersweet because I think about their birth parents and all that they've lost. This milestone birthday seems to have made me particularly wistful.

I so clearly remember Doodle's first birthday that it seems like it was only yesterday. She couldn't walk yet (that came almost two months later) and she moved around best in backward crawl mode. She looked adorable--curly hair, chubby cheeks, and a cute one piece white sailor suit--as she demolished her first piece of cake. It was also her first and last adult oriented party: a dinner party where the only other kids were 2, 7, and 9. We had been mother and daughter for four months. I felt so blessed.

The last 9 years seem to have passed in the blink of an eye. My gorgeous baby has turned into a beautiful young lady. I so admire her selflessness, her people skills, her musicality, her resourcefulness, and her sense of humor. Lately her bedtime has been creeping toward 10 p.m. partly because I enjoy spending one-on-one time with her so much that I don't push her too hard to go to bed. It's hard to squeeze in time for games or significant talks with homework, soccer practice, piano lessons, flute practice, Girl Scouts, playdates, etc. so Doodle adapts by getting a bit less sleep. This is something she has been doing all her life: when I went back to work shortly before she turned 1, she willed herself to stay awake an hour later at night so that we could have more time together. And so it continues.

In 9 more years Doodle will celebrate her first birthday away from home as she finishes up her freshman year of college. I hope that time slows a bit in those 9 years. Or maybe not: I'm probably going to want the teen years to be over quickly.

* She was found with a note on a red envelope that provided the date and time of her birth.

Rock On

"Where words fail, music speaks."
— Hans Christian Andersen

Doodle celebrated her upcoming (in three days) 10th birthday today with six of her BFFs at a rock music school/recording studio. The girls each went home with a CD of the group's recording of Hillary Duff's Come Clean.

First the girls learned the instrumental part, broken down so that a virtual novice could play it. After they recorded the instrumentals (with 4 girls on guitar, 1 on keyboards, 1 on drums, and 1 on bass), they ate brownies and chocolate covered strawberries before going back in the studio to record the vocals.

The result was pretty impressive, with the studio employees ranking it among the very best of the ones they've done for birthday parties. If I can figure out how to post it here, I will. All of the dads on pickup duty were interested in having their own birthday party at this school/studio. It seemed like one of those middle aged male fantasies but this place seriously does rock.

Tootle the Builder

Dates to Remember

April 16: the first time I paid more than $40 to fill my Subaru Outback gas tank ($3.39 a gallon at the time; it has gone up since then)

April 17: first time I mowed the grass this season

April 18: Doodle gets yet another cold/fever that lasts for four days

April 19: quick trip to Pennsylvania to take my aunt out to dinner for her birthday (we see an equal number of Clinton and Obama signs; I expect to be disappointed in my home state today)

April 20: more than 3 inches of rain and a wet basement floor, thankfully not from the rain but from an unbalanced washer load that overflowed

April 20: only 10 more days until Doodle turns 10

Olympic Torch and National Geographic

While sitting in the dentist's waiting room this morning, Tootle and I enjoyed ogling the gorgeous pictures of China in the May issue of National Geographic, which is fully devoted to China and titled China: Inside the Dragon. In leafing through the issue, which I intend to buy at my earliest convenience (I can't wait to read the article by Amy Tan), I noticed a map of the Olympic Torch route. The torch will go through both Doodle's and Tootle's hometowns: Longyan, Fujian on May 13 and Hangzhou, Zhejiang on May 18. The best part is that we can go to the torch's Web site and see photos and videos of the torch's journey through these cities, and every other city on the route. The torch race route in 2002 passed within 100 yards of my office at the time, and I found it thrilling to watch it go past me, even if it was practically in the blink of an eye. I hope that all the issues that are currently polluting the 2008 Olympics dissipate and that the games are a huge success.

And Skating Star

The girl who doesn't like tights apparently doesn't mind skating tights. One of Doodle's friends gave Tootle a skating dress that she has outgrown, and Tootle looooves it. Tootle's comfort level on the ice continues to astound me.

Star of the Week

Tootle is very proud to be Star of the Week in her class this week.In addition to posting a display on the wall with information and pictures of Tootle, her teacher will have each kid draw a picture of themselves and Tootle and write a few sentences about Tootle, to be compiled into a booklet. Over the weekend Tootle had to answer several questions for the display:

Where I was born: Hangzhou, China
Favorite color: sky blue
Number of pets: 4 (two cats and two goldfish)
Favorite book: Ruby's Beauty Shop by Rosemary Wells (it's a Max & Ruby book)
When I grow up: I want to be a doctor
Person I admire: her teacher (Tootle is a born politician, and her teacher is pretty great)

The poor kid has to have her first cavity filled tomorrow morning (it's her tooth that is far higher than the others because of her cleft palate, and thus it is very hard to brush). I hope to get a picture of the Star of the Week display when I drop her off at school after the dentist appointment.