It has begun

For years, I've told my husband, "Our girls will have crushes on boys starting as early as fourth or fifth grade. They'll dream about them. They'll write their initials plus the boys' initials in secretive places. It's just part of being a girl."

And my husband with a glower would say, "We're moving three hours away from the nearest boys! Three hours!"

I would laugh and hope he wasn't even a tiny bit serious. I love my home, and I don't want to move to Montana or Alaska.

Today my oldest (dd11) was pulling out school notebooks from last year to get ready for the new school year and showing them to me when I noticed on the last page of a notebook an elaborate drawing pairing her first initial with a letter that doesn't match anyone in the family. I called attention to it, asking whose it was, and she blushed and ran away with her notebook. Hello, puberty, I don't know if we adults are ready for you yet.