Comfy shoes!

My newly 12-year-old daughter and I went shopping yesterday. For birthdays around here, the birthday kid gets a one-on-one outing with a parent. So, we went shopping for her gifts and had lunch at a diner and she had a banana split as big as her head. Her sister got one last year on her birthday outing, so of course E wanted one this year! I wonder if the banana split will become a birthday tradition. Heh.

E wanted to go shoe shopping, and we ended up getting matching shoes. Hers are a size and a half bigger than mine, and a different color. But they're the same shoes. Just some fun streamlined-looking tennies. I'm wearing mine today and they are so comfy! She's wearing hers, too. I'll have to ask how her feet feel when she gets off the bus later.

We also bought matching charms for our italian charm bracelets. Mine says "mom"; hers says "daughter". She said she had a lot of fun going mom and daughter shopping with me. I really look forward to those times we have alone. The 20-30 minutes we have every day after she gets off the bus and before we go pick up the other kids is so nice. I hope we can keep grabbing those moments as she turns into a teen. The mother/daughter relationship can be so tricky (and don't forget I have three daughters!) I really just hope we can keep it together even through those "teen" times.