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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Girlz Just Wanna Have Fun - Part II

Last night, Audrey and her friends had a Back to School sleepover, which also included the girls going to the Back to School dance at their new middle school.

They arrived to our house after the dance around 9:30pm. They were alittle wound up, but they quietly headed down to our finished basement where they could have their own space and do what twelve year old girls do. Scream, laugh, scream some more, etc.

I eventually fell asleep, but sometime around midnight, I heard Matt get out of bed and go downstairs. I could hear many little girls screaming and laughing through the vents. It sounded liek they were yelling to one another from across three rooms!

Matt eventually crawls back into bed and told me that he had gone downstairs to our first floor to text Audrey, who was in our basement. Is that not the best Dad ever? He knew she would be mortified if he actually went down into her space to ask them to keep it down so I could get my much needed beauty sleep.

Repeat around 1:30am. Ugh. Not much sleep for Mr. and Mrs. White last night.

This morning, of course there was no sound from the basement for hours. While they slumbered, Matt and I talked about a few things.

It was so nice to see all of the girls the night before displaying who they are and their individual personalities by their outfits and makeup. Some spent most of an hour getting ready for the dance, while others didn't fuss a bit. One wore crazy knee highs and another wore bright neon clunky rapper tennis shoes. Crazy knee high girl had on strips of glittery royal blue on her eye lids. Some wore glittery bows and others were STILL messing with their hair in the windows of the van as I dropped them off. 

As Matt lay in bed awake, he said he kept going back and forth between the thought that Audrey would never, ever have another sleepover again in her life... and the thought that this is what we have always wanted for her (and the exact reason that we finished the basement with the touches that we did). We wanted to create a space where the kids would feel safe and  comfortable to just hang out.

My thoughts kept going back to my own childhood. Earlier in the night, I had asked Matt if I should sleep on the couch in case they decided to sneak out. They would never get away with that, he said. At one point of last night, I could hear the girls tip-toeing up the stairs. Just for food. Phew. They are so lucky.

I also thought of the alcohol we have in the basement refrigerator. I told Matt that I would hope if someone tried something with those bottles, Audrey, the rule follower, would come get us. There ain't no way a seventh grader would tell on her friends, he said. Really? Because my bet is still on Audrey. As I type this, I am sitting here wondering what my reaction would be if someone tried something. Did you see my last post about anger management issues?

What were we worried about? Look at these sweet, sleep-deprived, yet well-fed angels?


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