When Your Daughter Turns 35…

Me and Sky

Oh, my…there is no amount of Botox or Restylane or any of the fillers on the market today that will transform me to 45 now that my daughter is 35.  Her big mouth gives me away, not to mention my face that screams 50-something.  I know I’m old because I’m happy at 61 that some may guess I am ONLY 55.  Yikes!

Tonight we all went out to dinner to celebrate my daughter turning 35.  Oh, and just for the record – no – even at 35 we are not friends. If you’re friends with your adult daughter you give up the right to tell her – among other things – that her skirt is too short.

There we were – our family – Fanny, my mother-in-law, my son, Doug, my nephew Chuck and my daughter’s boyfriend, Angel.  Oh, and that real angel, my little granddaughter, Skylar, who I take every opportunity to tell that she can do and be anything that she wants to be.   Tonight she responded by bombarding me riddles and hopping on and off of my lap. Hey, she’s only 7 and a half!

My own words made me wonder, though, what would I have done differently with my life if I was back at 7 and a half and from a sane, loving family?  I’ll never know…but I do know that at least I was aware enough to recognize the right man when he came along.  I grabbed him and married him at 22 and started popping out a family four years later.  Voila…there they were tonight…at the table…That wasn’t a mistake.

I don’t remember why, but at some point during the evening Doug quoted comedian Louis CK .  “You’re not a real woman until a little person comes out of you and then walks all over your dreams.”

Did that happen to me? Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No…Who knows?

I do know that I’m still here and hopefully I’ve got a few good years left to maybe, just maybe, do something semi-sensational and put a positive dent into a few lives.  And, how lucky it was that my son brought  press-on mustaches so we could take these goofy pictures to capture the moments that keep us young and silly and smooth out the wrinkles naturally.

Still, tick-tick-tick…ahhhhhhhh!

Doug, Skylar & Jacki in photo