Eleven

My baby is eleven today. She’s eleven.

How is eleven treating Olivia?

Eleven is opinionated, strong-willed, argumentative, and still very snuggly. Eleven still wants back scratches at night but will screech at you at 6:30am if the sheets on her bed are messed up.

Eleven loves Barbies and YouTube videos about Barbie. She eats like an adult (loves a variety of food that does not include chicken nuggets) but still would prefer it if someone would sit next to her and spoon the food into her mouth, thank you very much. All this feeding of oneself is very tiresome.

At eleven, Olivia dresses herself and has very strong opinions on what she’s wearing each day. She CAN tie her own shoes but she very much prefers not to. She still needs washing her hair but can bathe on her own for the most part. She pushes her sister’s buttons just to see the sparks fly.

She argues with her dad because she can and he eggs her on.

I’m still her favorite person.

Eleven is going to be awesome.

Though I will confess to having said the following sentence to her, on her last day as a ten year old, “Olivia, stop talking to me. I’m sleeping.”

Yes…even at eleven, sleep can be a challenge. But life would be boring without challenges, right?

Bring on ELEVEN!