No, no, no, and also, no.

I am not ready for this. Not even a little bit. My little baby girl, the one who crawls around, puts her hair up in a pineapple ponytail that goes straight up, the one who can barely toddle, the one who just started kindergarten, the one that just barely learned how to ride a bicycle, the one who is much too young to be a young lady - she's a young lady now.

Laine celebrated her twelfth birthday a couple weeks back. She decided she has outgrown parties where parents have any role, so we supplied pizza, candy, and brownies, along with a basement clear of siblings, and she took care of the rest. She had half a dozen of her best friends over, they watched Princess Bride and laughed so loudly I thought there would be a body count by the end of it.

So now she gets to run off half the summer to fun camps with the church Young Women's program, start Junior High this fall, and become a completely independent little woman who doesn't need her Dad at all.

Yup, not ready for this at all.

-Christian