The Big 1-0

One decade.  Double digits.  The BIG 1-0!  I can't believe my baby Zoe is 10 years old today! How could she have grown so much since I brought her home yesterday?!

 She's such a mix of little girl and little lady -- she loved the very-tween robe from my sister, with "Girls Rule" all over it, and loved just as much the schoolhouse furniture set for her doll house, which she still loves to play with.  She loved the silver hoop earrings from me and the stuffed big-eyed penguin from her sister. She loved the very-grownup art set from Mimi, with real artist's paints, and loved the minivan for her dollhouse dolls to tool around in. And you can see she still loves her Baby Joy, which she got on her second birthday, so Baby Joy needed to be in on the gift-opening since she apparently turned 8 today!

Zoe says being 10 feels just like being 9, but I have to admit it makes me feel old!  Zoe was really tickled when she was little and figured out I was 40 years older than her:  "When I'm 6 you'll be 46, and when I'm 7 you'll be 47, and when I'm 8 you'll be 48, and when I'm 9 you'll be 49, and when I'm 10 you'll be 40-10. . . ."  Yikes!  40-10 just sneaked up on me (I've got 5 more days). . . .

Turning 9 lead to lots of thought of birth family for Zoe, the perennial "Do you think they're thinking about me today?" question.  This year, she seems to be in a different phase.  My mentions of her birth parents have been ignored.  She's not biting at any of my overtures in that direction.  She's been changing to conversation to discussing her adoption instead. That's fine, but it doesn't prevent me from thinking of her birth mother today.