What happens on the 11th birthday? For witches and wizards, an owl from Hogwarts should deliver an invitation. Madison got hers, though unfortunately she was too wired to appreciate it until later that day.
The party. Madison's first slumber party was on Thursday night, a "Because We Can" party on a school night with all home-schooled girls. It was a big success, though by Friday morning Madison was far too cranky and wired to realize it. I'd thought they'd go to bed around midnight and so might still be sleeping when I got home from the radio station Friday morning. Ha! I hadn't reckoned on preteen girls (it's only been 30 years since I was one, but you'd think I'd remember this) and the fact that they were sleeping in an east-facing room without curtains. So they were up and bouncy at 6:30 in the morning, watching Full House on Nickelodeon. All seemed to get along great and have a good time overall.
Madison got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, which is less than half what she needs. That girl NEEDS sleep. She is sick, and awful, and snotty, and way over-reactive without it. She mostly kept it together for the sake of the other girls there, mostly. It's a good thing we didn't have to go on a car trip the next day, or she'd have thrown up for sure. As it was, a good 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon brought her back to human. Ella manages much better on low sleep.
Ella had done a bunch of extra work for me around the house to be able to buy Madison this small dollhouse kit -- one that you put together yourself. It was the first time Ella had bought Madison something with her own money, $30. She still needs to work off some of it, but it was definitely Madison's favorite gift from the family. David got her a model of the Starship Enterprise, and four more Xanth novels. We got her a gift certificate to Dan's Crafts and Things so she can get stuff for her new dollhouse, and also a gift card to Barnes & Noble. I got her a lovely red-flower-painted ceramic mug, with a top so the tea stays hot and doesn't spill. Also, I got her a craft model of a water-and-trees diorama to put together and paint; she had pointed it out to me in Michael's.
And, I got her a magnet. Now, I never get magnets or cards with "sayings" because I prefer putting things in my own words and usually getting such things seems hokey to me. One exception is this beautiful heavy rock paperweight that I love, which my friend Patrick gave me many years ago, into which is carved the word "Create." This is probably what led me to give Madison a magnet that caught my eye the other day, which says simply, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." I want her to set out with this attitude, and, let's face it, she probably would anyway, she's my kid. But it can't hurt to have a little reminder on one's 11th birthday.
Madison was really most excited about that wooden dollhouse kit. Unfortunately, it's still complicated enough that an 11-year-old can't manage it on her own, not exactly. Well, she could, but not if she wanted it to look beautiful. She might have been able to follow the directions and punch out the wooden things and match prong to slot and get it looking okay, but because Madison cares equally about end results as about doing something "herself," I decided that she'd ultimately be happier if I managed the project. She was totally on board with this... plus she loves having me do crafts with them, especially dollhouse things, which I do all-too-rarely these days because I can't really justify the time away from work.
I know, because Madison's my kid and a normal human, that she would want to Just Do It Now. Sometimes that's fine. Who doesn't want a little instant gratification? But even a bright girl like Madison lacks the kind of experience and foresight to know the difference between doing something quick and half-assed and taking your time and doing it right; in some ways, I still have to fight against this impulse. On the one hand, that's a lesson she can learn herself, and there is certainly value in kids starting and completing a project like this on their own, even if it doesn't look great at the end. But I've done these kinds of projects before, and I knew that it was likely that the whole thing would collapse in a pile of unattractive rubble that she'd never want to use, if it wasn't done right. So I decided to use this as an important lesson: Even before it occurred to her to dive in and try to get it all done in a day, we had a long talk about how well I understand the impulse for short cuts -- why NOT put it all together and THEN paint it? Why bother with primer at all? It would go so much faster if we just dove in and whammed it together, right? Don't you know that feeling? Kids have it worse than we do.
I got her on board with the theory of doing it carefully, so she wouldn't be too disappointed with not getting it all done today. She's a theory person and it wonderfully able to stick with something after she is convinced by its rightness. Plus, she's got a great imagination, so imagining the finished project is keeping her going -- it's going to be a "little red schoolhouse" with white gingerbread trim a la the little Victorian bungalows at the Methodist camp on Martha's Vineyard. All we did today was punch out the first part of the project, prime, and paint--because it's much easier to prepare each piece before putting it together. She spent quite a bit of time mixing the exact right shade of brick-red after we primed. I did put a second coat of the red paint on when they were upstairs and done with the project for the day, so it would look good.
Will post photos when it's done.
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