Fiona is 10 1/2

A very long-legged girl child is sitting in the chair next to me, nose deep in a chapter book (and occasionally giggling) while she does her "extra 20 minutes." One of the drawbacks of sharing a room is that everyone goes to bed at the same time, which ends up as the lowest common denominator - the bedtime of a 6yo. Since we have been thus far unable to find a house that provides separate bedrooms, we met Fiona in the middle. One night a week, she gets to stay up an extra 20 minutes to read after the other two go to bed. This has been deemed a "10 year old privilege" that the other two cannot wait to reach. 

Fiona is still growing like a weed. I'm very grateful we are almost to shorts season and I can stop trying to keep her in pants for a few months. I'll take my saving from pants and put it towards groceries. She is eating so much lately and it is awesome. I made her favorite enchiladas a couple weeks ago and she may have eaten more than Mike and me combined. By the end, I just handed her the pan to finish off. 

She also is the proud owner of a brand new big bike. She upgraded to a hand-me-down one last fall when she outgrew hers. When Mike got the bikes out this spring, it became super clear that Quinn's bike was now also too small. Fiona got the brand new teal and hot pink bike and Q happily took the hand-me-down of the hand-me-down. On Friday night while Q and Mike were at hockey, Fiona (and her new bike) and Dec (and, as he pointed out, his not new bike) accompanied me on a run. Fiona was really enjoying the speed that the bigger bike provides - and how she could leave mom in the dust!

It is easy to notice how Fiona is becoming more mature. She is more frequently asking what she can do to help around the house, she's noticing when something needs to be done and is just doing it, and she wants to be seen and treated as "older." Her class read the book Hatchet and Gma sent the sequel The River. She loved those books and has been more receptive to reading chapter books instead of just graphic novels. Tonight, she was reading one of my old Encyclopedia Brown books. I'm also successfully teaching her an appreciation for 90s country female singers. 

It's really the little moments when it's so clear how much she's growing up. Last night, the kids and I were roughhousing and Fiona's button fell out. Like lying on the carpet fell out. I'm not going to say that she and I handled it with complete calm. But she could have freaked out a lot more than she did. In fact, we've seen her much more panicked. Instead, Mike was able to insert a new button and we moved on with our evening. 

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that she'll be eleven and has legs for miles. But she is one of the most fun people to talk to and I love hearing all the thoughts in her head. Fiona can identify most Guns 'N Roses, Queen, and ABBA songs [life skills], wears about four outfits a day, is extremely interested in Mike and my dating history, and told us that we are only embarrassing "sometimes."