Growth Spurt

I get my daughter today for the weekend. Of course, being the end of
summer, we are going to go clothes shopping for her new school year.
I can not believe how tall she is getting. She is only a couple of
inches shorter than her aunt (who is four years older than her). She
is already wearing the same shoe size as her aunt. It is an amazing
thing to witness my daughter mature into a beautiful young lady. She
is only eleven right now and she is starting the sixth grade this
year. So you know what that means (Boys, makeup, parties). I know
that every parent goes through this part of their child's life, but
it just seems to be happening so quickly. I remember it was just
yesterday that I could hold her in one arm and we'd fall asleep on
the recliner watching TV together. Life goes by so fast.

I started to realize that when children go through the growth spurts,
we as parents go through similar growth spurts. Only, ours are not
physical growth spurts, but emotional growth spurts. We have to learn
to let go of our children and trust that we did the best parenting
job possible. I love watching my daughter mature in front of my eyes.
I also try my best to not take her growth for granted.

Of course, all of this physical growing is killing my wallet. I am
buying clothes every three months with her constant spurts lately.
So, today I rack up even more debt to ensure that her school does not
call child protective services on me for sending my daughter to
school in hoochie mama shorts and half-top tees because she has
outgrown all of her summer clothes already.