Life Past 30

November 27, 2008 will go down in history, at least in my book.  I am not a person who enjoys cooking and only do it because my body and my daughter require daily sustenance.  Cooking has never been an activity that I wanted to do often, but is quite necessary.  Besides my slight disdain for cooking, I am a good cook and my daughter enjoys eating what I prepare.  Admittedly, preparing and cooking homemade french fries from red potatoes is something I enjoy immensely and cooking anything else feels like a chore.  Thanksgiving of 2008 should go down in history because I cooked my very first turkey - ever!  My daughter and I buttered and covered with Turkey Rub the magnificent bird, then he was placed in the oven.  What was to be a somewhat experimental meal turned out to be a hit that received wonderful accolades.  What made it even more special is the fact that I LIKED cooking it.  Now, I cannot say for sure if I am willing to do it again.  I do not want to move too fast and make promises that I may not keep.  Being domestically inclined is one of my weak points, but I do what must be done anyway, you know, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. 

When my daughter tasted the first bite of turkey and stuffing, her eyes became large, although she did not utter a word.  I asked her for her honest opinion and had to wait until she had finished chewing and swallowing her food.  She looked me in the eyes and said, “Mom, this is the best turkey I’ve ever had.  It’s better than Grandma’s.”   Well, imagine how great that made me feel.  She then went on to suggest that I make Thanksgiving dinner EVERY year as I thought to myself, “What have I done?!”.  Anyway, perhaps I will cook one more turkey for Christmas and call it day.  Good things should never be overdone.  

There are days when I wake up and find myself struck with disbelief that I am someone’s mother.  Yes, this fact hit me the day I had my daughter, but it still stops me in my tracks every now and then.  Motherhood has been the greatest thing that has ever occurred in my life and I cherish every day of it.  When I found out I was pregnant, I became so overwhelmed with feelings of happiness, fear, and anxiety that I had to literally pinch myself to make sure it was real.  I was ecstatic about being a mom-to-be, but nervous because I knew I would be responsible for teaching and nurturing another human.

Those first few years were amazing as I watched her progress from a tiny baby to a walking butterball.  She started drawing when she turned two, reading when she turned three, and had learned to use every piece of electronics by age four.  Then she reached school age and I got nervous all over again.  I didn’t want her to go to school and so far away from me for most of the day.  I calmed myself down by talking to my mother who gave me some good advice and explained that she felt the same way with me.  She excelled in school from the beginning so there was one thing I did not have to worry about.

She is close to going through puberty and I am very interested to see how that is going to play out.  Some changes have started to occur, but we talk constantly about what she should expect in the next few years.  We have great communication and she knows she can talk to me about anything.  She is a great kid who is well mannered, highly intelligent and intuitive, enjoys eating vegetables, and has a deep love for animals.

I have learned quite a lot about myself since becoming a mother, through parenting and from my daughter.  She has no idea how much she has inspired me to do better than my last greatest accomplish.  I look forward to each new day with her and watch her grow into a young woman.  Yes, motherhood has been great and I love it.

The holiday season is quickly approaching.  I don’t usually start thinking about the holidays until after Halloween because anytime before that is too early, but that is my opinion.  Growing up, Christmas was my favorite holiday because school was out for a longer period of time and I received lots of presents.  As I got older, I found myself concentrating less on the presents and more on the warmth of being surrounded by family and friends and having a good time. 

Now that I have a daughter, who will be 11 in a few months, Christmas has become an almost painful holiday for me.  It wasn’t always so because anything pleased her when she was really young.  Right now, I can picture myself grimacing at the checkout counter purchasing some overpriced electronic gadget or loopy video game.  You see, my daughter does not play with Barbie dolls, hasn’t since she was four.  No, she has joined the throngs of children today who prefer anything expensive that beeps, talks, creates, or allows them to do the same.  When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she calmly replied, “A laptop, a 160GB iPod, and anything else electronic”, “What about those cool board games we saw or the microscope set you can use for school?”, I asked.  I got the strangest look.   

Of course, my mind instantly thought of how simple Christmas was when she was two years old and happy about everything she received.  It’s only gotten worse since her hands turned to cups at age six.  Yes, they really did turn into cups and I can prove it.  I didn’t believe my parents when they told me MY hands had turned to cups, but lo and behold, it happened to my daughter.  When your children’s hands begin curving into rounded cups, you start spending more money.  Sad, but true.   

She’ll get an MP3 player, but it won’t be the 160GB iPod.  The laptop is out of the question, but I’m sure I will be able to find some interesting (and inexpensive) gadget that will capture and hold her attention.  I’ll just let her borrow my iPod.   

My daughter, who is 10 years old, started using the computer when she was 5 and is well on her way to becoming a computer expert.  She can answer questions about changing a computer profile, linking it to the XBOX 360, and reconfigure her settings to her liking.  She creates her own “walk throughs” for her favorite video games and also knows how to make video game cheats.  All this knowledge was acquired in 5 short years.  Many years ago, it was a lot different for children than it is today.  People in my age group, 70’s babies, had to learn the ins and outs of computers the hard and long way.  The children of today have everything at their finger tips and they seem to learn at a faster pace than we did.   

The first time I touched a computer was in 1982.  I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen since the Atari 2600.  My mind raced as I tried to discover everything about it, from how it worked to exactly what it could do.  To my surprise, it didn’t do nearly as much as I wanted it to, but I still loved using it.  Everyday, I would turn it on just to try and discover a secret that may have escaped me.  No such luck.  Boredom eventually set in and ended up using only the computer at school.  Despite this ”computer slump” I was in, I continued to want more from computers and kept myself updated on the newer models that were being released.  You can imagine how happy I was as I witnessed computers that allowed users to make and print pictures, but nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. 

Now, in 2008, I watch my daughter learn something new everyday like the knowledge already existed in her head.  It’s as though she just needed something to bring it out.  When she first started using the computer, she was a little nervous and her hand barely covered the mouse.  Now she moves the mouse so quickly you can barely keep up with the movements.  Oh, she also types 40 words a minute…self taught.  I simply can’t help thinking how far technology has come from the days when I was her age and everyone got excited about PC’s that had 20K of hard drive space.  What really gets me thinking is how quickly the children of recent years adapt to everything electronic.  It’s almost scary.  I forgot to mention that she hasn’t played with dolls since she was 7 and thinks that anything that isn’t electronic is a waste time.  I’m sure her views will change as she matures, but for now, she’s definitely a techie.