Goodbye, Big Mama
Our oldest just celebrated her thirteenth birthday, which means that we just celebrated our thirteenth year of successful parenting. Yay, us! And if I'm being honest, which is kind of the point of writing through one's feelings, I'd like to hang up my parenting hat. I mean. Thirteen years is a long time to commit to something, right? I've never done ANYTHING consistently for thirteen years. I feel like we've got a pretty good product, she's doing fairly well for herself, I'm quite satisfied with a job well done. If only. Parents are really good about warning other parents about "what's next." Sometimes it's discouraging, and sometimes it's super helpful. Sometimes it's contradictory - Two is really hard, No wait til they're THREE - but everyone seems to be in agreement that Thirteen is one of the Seven Circles of Hell. So, right when you're feeling pretty good about getting the training wheels off and pushing this li