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Doug Larson said, “Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own.”

Oh boy, ain’t that the truth! Jessie’s 10 going on 18. I’ve told Jim many times that he wasn’t ready for her to be a teenager yet. Hell, he still isn’t ready for her to be old enough to be considered a “tween,” but she’s already there. So far, we’ve had mega-attitude (combined with a quick temper yields much grounding), a smart mouth (more grounding), the rolling eyes and muttering under her breath (watch it, missie!), crushes on boys, and to top it off: she’s wanting to know when she can wear makeup.

:shock: Poor Jim. LOL

It’s not all bad though. Despite her mother’s incessant wishes for her to be grown already (jeez lady, enjoy it while it lasts!), Jessie still remains innocent enough to enjoy our time together. She hasn’t yet reached the “oh geeez, you’re embarrassing me!” stage yet … she’s maturing, and the fact that I’m not the “evil stepmother” yet means either I’m doing a lot better than I think, or she’s a really REALLY great kid. (I already think she’s great, but hey, I’m biased! ;))

She hit me with something the other day that seemed out of the blue, but may be foretelling … apparently she’s anti-fur.

When she and I went shopping with my mother a few weeks back, I was looking for some really cute earmuffs for her. Her school won’t let them wear toboggans or hats anymore, but earmuffs are completely acceptable, so I was on a happy hunt. I ran across an ADORABLE pair of red and black pairs that were covered in rabbit fur. When I called Jessie over to look at them, she looked at me in horror and asks, “Is that real fur?”

*blink*

I said, “Yeah, sweetie, it’s rabbit fur. Do you want to feel?” I’m allergic to rabbit fur, but she isn’t and they were adorable so I naturally thought it would have been a good find. She looks at me with these big sad eyes (you know, the kind you only see on puppies and cartoons?) and says, “I could never wear anything that hurt an animal to make it!”

I was honestly stunned for a moment. It never once crossed my mind that she would take something like that into consideration when shopping for clothes, accessories, etc.

I played it off as no big deal and we kept looking. We found a much cuter pair of earmuffs later on with plush monkeys on them. (Monkeys rule, don’tchaknow!)

When we were getting ready to leave, I asked her if she had felt that way a while about fur. She said she had, but had been afraid to say anything. (Given how her mother gets so abrasive over non-issues, I don’t doubt that she’s too scared to speak up more often!) I told her it was no big thing and I’m proud of her stating her beliefs and standing firm on them. I then asked her how she felt about leather. “Leather? That comes from animals?” she asked. I told her, “Yeah, it’s made out of cow hide. Our couch, my backpack, your sneakers, … these are all from cows.”

She paused for a moment and said, “Oh, those are ok. I just don’t want the cute furry animals to get hurt!”

You heard my child. Screw the cows. ;)