it turns me inside-out

Impossible!!!! My baby is 10. Say it ain't so ,y'all! I'm sure that I'm not old enough to have a kid that has lived for a decade, and I sure don't feel it. Where did the baby go? Well, our immersion into parenthood began with this little pistol, and she was probably a good one to begin on, not being particularly tender with us upstarts who assumed (you know what that does, right??) that we could raise a kid, no problem. She kept us on our toes from day 1, in the months where Uncle Dirk christened her "Fussy Spice" and Auntie lovingly referred to her as "Machine-Gun Molly" because of her odd, staccato cry. And then there were the years of song composing/performing (how many remember "Out of Batteries" or "Everything of Joy"??). Slowly we realized she was a bona fide tomboy, who eschewed dresses and all things pink, rejecting girly giggling and instead opting for bike-riding, tree-climbing, bug collections and animal research. And her Mom loves seeing a reflection of her own childhood in this awesome girl. We love you Molly, you are way cool!

(by the way, this pic was also to show Granny and others her new haircut, courtesy of Aunt Annie. Molly accidentally blew a gum bubble into her hair, and voila, new summer haircut!)