Years ago, when I first heard the term “tween,” I thought it was stupid. Children were kids and then they were teenagers. That was really all the terminology I needed. Of course, at that point I had never had a girl child who was in the age range of a tween. The boys were little boys and then big boys and then teenagers and that was all the age labeling they needed. But as I have watched Malia over the past six months, it has become abundantly clear that the “tween” moniker is wildly appropriate for 10- to 12-year-old girls. Malia was a little girl and then a big girl, but now she is something entirely different although she is not yet a teenager.
The past two and a half years have seen Malia grow up faster than I would have liked. Living through a pandemic will do that to a child. We are also living in the last days and as the standards of the world have deviated increasingly from the gospel standards in which we believe, we have had to be very open and have some extremely frank conversations with all our children about the state of the world and the attitudes of many of the people in it. Add to that the fact that she is the youngest in our family by a fairly large margin and as such spends much of her time conversing with teens and adults, and she has naturally gained some early maturity in attitudes, ideas and conversational skills just by interacting with her family.
But the past six months have held some additional changes in her interests and behaviors, the way she interacts with friends, the things that she gets excited about, etc. For instance, she is no longer playing with friends. They are hanging out. She has become much more interested in listening to music of her own choosing, mostly pop music. She is planning a group Halloween costume with her friends. She is comfortable being dropped off with her friends at a public location without having an adult act as supervisor and safety net. And as proven by her reactions at the OneRepublic concert last weekend, she has reached the “fangirling” stage. She’s eleven, so not a teen, but definitely giving me teenage girl vibes. And now I totally understand the relevance of the term “tween.”
As usual, birthdays are a multi celebration event over here and Malia’s eleventh was no exception. Post Covid we moved to a once-a-month dinner at my parents’ house, so last week Sunday was the day we frosted the cake and lit the candles for our extended family. Kevin’s mom joined us as well, which I loved. Malia chose LPS (Littlest Pet Shop) as the theme for her cake. Now you might be thinking that toys like that are definitely in the little/big girl stage but let me assure you that Malia’s love of LPS is not just as a toy. She uses “blanks,” LPS figures that have no paint, and customizes them. She sculpts additions to the blanks using an epoxy clay and then paints her new characters according to her liking. She has mainly focused on creating dragons from her favorite book series, Wings of Fire, and cats from her other favorite book series, Warrior Cats. She still enjoys the purchased animals and plays with all the purchased and created ones, but she spends far more time creating than she does just playing. AND she has taken a page out Matthew’s book and has discovered that she likes taking pictures of her creations.
Unlike last year, Malia’s friend party was not postponed because she was in quarantine. On Saturday, her friends arrived as planned and the fun ensued. We had LPS blanks and all the supplies needed to paint them and let the kids create their own animal. We played a “Who Knows the Birthday Girl the Best” test and Acie, Malia’s best friend, took high honors. We played “Name That Tune” and Kate was the maestro of that activity. There were cupcakes to be had, topped with LPS, of course. And Malia’s friends, who all know her well, were incredibly generous with their gifts. She ended up with markers, paints, sculpting clay, sketchbooks…basically a big pile of art supplies. And she was very enthusiastic about that! One additional comment, Malia was in completely in charge of creating the birthday party invitation. It definitely gives you a glimpse at her personality!
Her real birthday was today. Since today was only the third day of the school year, Malia was the very first person to celebrate a birthday in her class. As such, she was this week’s spotlight person and had only two days to create her “All About Me” poster instead of a week or more. But she rose to the challenge, and I love how it turned out. It definitely reflects her interests, her talents, and who she is.
Matthew had marching band rehearsal this evening, so Kevin and I took Malia out to dinner. She chose the Olive Garden, one of her favorite safe eateries. She has always kind of been in a food rut when we eat out, ordering either chicken fingers, spaghetti, or whatever noodle comes topped with red sauce, but this time she opted for the cheese stuffed jumbo shells and loved it. Woohoo for expanding her food choices! When I asked her what treat she wanted for her actual birthday, she asked if I would make cheesecake. Due to her peanut allergy and the propensity for purchased cheesecake to have cross contact issues, the only time she can eat cheesecake is if it is homemade, so I was happy to oblige. Besides, I’m always looking for a good excuse to make cheesecake. Yum!
Malia had originally planned to create a tiny happy birthday banner to do on her LPS cake, but she ran out of time. This morning she drew a mockup of what her original banner was going to look like and when she showed it to me, I decided a banner for the cheesecake was in order. A couple of dollars spent on Etsy.com and the use of my Silhouette craft cutter made creating one a fast and easy task, and she was mighty pleased with the results. She was also mighty pleased to eat the cheesecake as it was absolutely delicious. I have a cookbook called “The Cheesecake Bible” and I have never had a recipe from that cookbook disappoint.
In terms of presents, Malia’s big gift from Kevin and I was her adventure to see OneRepublic a week ago. We wanted her to have a couple small things to open on her birthday though, so we got her an airtight paint palette to help extend the usability of her custom colors and a keychain she has been wanting that features one of the characters from the Warrior Cats book series. Matthew gave her a book about how to draw anything (literally, it says so in the title) and Kevin’s mom gave her some books from her wish list.
As I mentioned previously, Malia has grown up a lot in the past year. She is intelligent and curious and loves to learn. She is always asking questions and her sense of humor is on par with the rest of my children. She is the one who always knows the answers in her primary class and when they gloss over the surface and she doesn’t get to share her knowledge or pronounce names like “Ahazerus” she generally comes home with an eye roll or two. Speaking of eye rolling, she is a pro as would be expected of any good tween. She loves to draw and has a tendency to carry a sketchpad and pencil nearly everywhere she goes. She is stubborn, which has its pros and cons, and her room is still a certified disaster area. She thinks like an artist, not like her OCD mom, which also has its pros and cons. There are days when she makes me so frustrated and days when she makes me laugh and I am grateful for all of it. I feel very blessed to have her in my family.
