Mienna - (Growing up is a terribly hard thing to do!)

"Growing up is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another."

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mienna is fast approaching the teenage era. Her looks and image are changing just a tiny bit every week and sometimes we don't slow down enough to appreciate just how quickly she is changing. She is still our Tom-Boy but she is definitely changing!

Her best friends have always been boys (with the exception of her cousin Baylee). Aidan was her first "boy" friend but not that type of boyfriend just a friend but a boy (which she often explains to us when we tease)...and then along came Austin - who she attached herself to right from kindergarden and now with going into grade 7 they are still best of friends. Mienna really doesn't have alot of patience for girl-drama!

Mienna is always are sensitive one. She has such a caring heart and is always especially concerned for anything furry or with feathers. From a very early age she was drawn to animals whether they be real or just her stuffed buddies. She has patience and isn't afraid of hard work (although it is getting harder to get her out of bed sometimes to get started but I will blame that on needing the extra sleep for growing into a teenager).

She is so crafty. I love that she likes to scrapbook with me and she enjoys going to scrapbook stores with me while Kaela and her Dad stay in the vehicle.

Mienna also takes after her Dad and is a natural born athelete but will still always cheer for the underdog. She is always her Dad's willing partner for going to an Oiler's hockey game and she still likes to collect hockey cards.

But...................... - There are so many things I miss already......

I miss her holding my hand when we cross a street or walk in a mall (although sometimes I can still sneak it in).

I miss when she was so little (before she could even talk) and she would line up all of her Fisher-price farm animals on the floor into perfect little rows. I'm still not sure why she liked to have them so organized but she did. I even purchased more of them from Ebay since she loved them so much.

I miss when we would build forts with blankets and chairs and she would play for hours. Our living room always had a fort whether it be blankets or a cardboard box.

I miss her going with her Dad in the tractor to "make dirt" (cultivating) and she would fall asleep.

I miss the little surprises of finding her asleep in odd places like on top of the coffee table after a long day of ice-fishing with her Dad.

I miss her setting up a movie theater with all of my kitchen chairs for all of her little stuffed buddies to watch "Little Bear".

I miss when she would see snowmobile tracks in the ditch and she would call them "scooby-doo" tracks instead of "ski-doo" tracks.

I miss when we would be driving along and I would tell her "Mienna keep your eyes peeled and you may see some deer", to which she replied - "Mom you are going to cut my eyes?" (she was not quite 5 at the time).  Tom and I sure giggled over that one.

I miss when we would pass someone on the road and she would say "we sure have fast wheels, Dad!"

I miss when I could still dress her in cute dresses with matching hair pretties... although that phase really didn't last very long.

There is so much that we miss and yet so much that is new to us as she leaves being a kid to approaching tweendom.

One last shot of Mienna trying to be patient when I take a picture of her and ask her to please not squint her eyes when she smiles so I can see the pretty blue that they are. You can see her patience is wearing a bit thin there.