Thursday, May 20, 2010

Driving to Denial

As Hubby and I are sitting at the dinner table he says I need some soda.
Then he proceeds to say to my surprise, I’m gonna have Teen 1 drive me to the store.

At that point my eyes bugged out and my head tilted like a puppy dog.
Huh? Really??!!

You see, she’s taken the online course.
She’s received the certification in the mail.
She’s begged and pleaded for us to take her to get her permit.
But each time I make up some excuse.
Not right now.
Our insurance is going to skyrocket.
We only have one car.
Or my personal favorite, saying nothing just silence.

Then he begins to call out “Teeeeeen 1!”

She comes out of the room and he asks, You wanna drive me to the store?

Her face lights up and she may even be standing on her tippy toes.
Really? Yeah, sure! She promptly replies.

Now my stomach is turning, my palms are sweating, and my heart is racing.

Then I realize that I’m in denial.
She’s 16 and a half
She’s growing up

My little tiny baby girl that kept me up all night because she would only drink 2 oz of milk every 2 hours…
My baby with the chubbiest legs you’ve ever seen, the one that had me worried she couldn’t hold up all that weight on her tiny feet to walk…
My little toddler who was THE most stubborn, hard headed child I’ve gone through yet…

Is almost an adult.

Wheh…breathe…

We proceed to the car.
Hubby in the front.
I’m sitting in the back next to The Boy.
The Boy is completly excited about this.
I on the other hand, am not.

Teen 1 begins to back out of the driveway
Slowly in reverse.
Looking over her shoulder very cautiously.

She then proceeds to drive down our street.

Breathing, inhale(that’s me)

Hubby is guiding her carefully.

Slowly, very slowly she goes.
Give it some gas we tell her.

I don’t like gas, I’m scared of gas she replies.

At 10-15 miles an hour we creep down the streets of our tract.
It takes us 5 mins to drive half a mile.

Exhale

Wheh…my baby girl drives like a grandma…

For now anyway…

2 comments:

Cheeseboy said...

Glad it turned out well, but it still freaked me out. My kids will never drive. They better like those bikes we buy them.

Diane J. said...

We are just a few months ahead of you. Our teen son is driving. When I took him out on a drive, we going around a lake on a one way road. Speed limit was 25. I freaked and yelled at my son to slow down, he was going too fast. He was only doing 15. I swear it seemed like 40.

Congrats on the newest phase and may the grandma-type driving continue for a long time.

Follow along through the fun and agony as we try to figure out how to raise two completely opposite teenagers- Teen 1, the fiesty yet inquisitive one, Teen 2 quiet but wise-cracking and our ball full of energy known as The Boy. It aint always pretty, but we’ll sure try to make the best of it!
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