We had our last supper as a family last night – for at least two weeks.  It’s funny to think of things in terms of “last” even if it has that caveat of “until a few weeks from now”.  Adding that word makes the situation more important, heavier if you will.

DJ was supposed to have taekwondo, but between traffic and other issues, she was going to be about 20 minutes late by the time it all came together.  Yay for bad parental planning. Oh well, shit happens.  So, we decided to say screw it, and go to the pub down the street for pizza.  The girls, as is their habit, grabbed drawing things – and we started walking.

It was funny looking back at the time we have lived where we live.  14 years ago, we never would have imagined being able to tell the girls to stick together and we’ll catch up – as we send them off alone.  Between traffic, the druggies, the questionable neighbors, there was no way I’d imagine letting my child go off without me right there. But off they went.  G and I followed watching them, talking about our days, talking about the upcoming running around as we leisurely walked that direction.

As we sat together waiting for our food, we talked about DJ’s upcoming 8th grade project.  She has already started to formulate her ideas for execution.  We talked about the books she might want to thumb through to get ideas of her own.  She shared a few things that were going on in her head in terms of frequency of working on it, etc.  It’s funny to think – that G’s dream of being part of the comic book world as a creator – is also coming to fruition through his daughter in some regards.

Indigo shared the stories of her rabbit escaping.  We talked about what she was drawing – one of the cats.  We talked about camp – her first ever sleepaway experience.   A very big deal given she has been grappling with nighttime bed wetting for a few years now – and yay medication for solving that one.   (That’s a whole other post.)

As a family, we talked about a recent blog I read about a family’s approach to the fact their young son has declared he is a girl – a girl with a penis.  We are probably a funny family to sit next to as we talk about gender issues so openly.  It was interesting hearing the girls express their point of view on the subject – their celebration that both parents were doing whatever they could to just let their child be who s/he decides to be without pushing the child one way or another in terms of toys, clothes, shoes, etc.

As we left, the girls ran ahead of us again.  I looked at G and said, “This is the best age.  Remember when we used to say that all the time when they were younger?”

G laughed and agreed, “Let’s hope we still feel this way in a few years.”

Amen.