This Is Us...

“Does Garfield talk?”

“What?”

“Does Garfield talk? Like, his mouth doesn’t move, but does Jon know what he’s thinking?”

This conversation, which led us down a rabbit hole of Google information, particularly this thread about whether or not Garfield is actually speaking, or if Jon is simply following his body language, or my very favorite theory, that the entire comic strip is just Jon projecting his own thoughts onto his pets-anyway, this conversation is why I love the ages that my girls are just now.

My Betsy is on the edge of 14, and my Felicity is 10 (and a half, she would add). I don’t mean to suggest that these are easy ages, by any means. Nearly 14 can be tricky-there are just days where she is prickly for no good reason, and there is a lot more time that she needs to spend listening to music very, very loudly. As for Felicity, she is just so polar opposite of Betsy and me-she is extroverted, and she loves to be surrounded by people, and living with two introverts who need downtime is difficult for her. (When we all have time alone to read, Felicity often comes to check with me about “how many more minutes?”)

But these ages lead to such interesting conversations. I have had intense conversations with Betsy on the way home from volleyball games about theology and climate change and what it’s like to feel rather like a square peg in this world. I love that she is developing her own ideas, independent of mine or anyone else.

Felicity and I bond over movies, as we have since she was little. But her selection choice is getting wider, and I marvel at how she can remember the tiniest details of books and movies.

My favorite part of being a single mom is that I get to spend time with the girls and have them all to myself. It’s a gift of this divorce that I didn’t fully appreciate at first. We all three need each other in a way that I can’t quite put a name to-we rely on each other, we laugh at the same things, I have somehow convinced them that old 80s television shows are the bomb. We talk about silly things, and serious things, and things in between.

It does catch my breath when I wrap my arms around my baby and she is towering over me. But, I assure you, no matter how much taller than me she gets, my baby she will always be. And just now, they still need their mom, and like to pile on my bed, one on each side of me, and watch movies and read books and pick at each other. I know that won’t last forever. But I’m treasuring it for now.