last night, 12 decided to clean her room...
armed with rubber gloves, windex, the shop vac
and 2 extra large garbage bags,
she went to work...

the result was impressive...
she sorted and purged,
cleaned and rearranged,
and i was so happy...

{up until this point, cleaning her room has
involved stuffing stuff where least likely to be
noticed by me}

so why sweetly sad?

that she is too old for this...{by her own decision}

she was only little when she got this,
and it came with little people and furniture...
eventually the little people moved out,
and her barbies moved in...so many barbies...
and then the bratz came and they shared the house...
it was redecorated so many times,
with paper and fabrics glued on...
with sharpie markers dictating whose room was whose
and expressing disgust at celebrity "sell outs" who changed their looks...

when really, it may be my girl who is changing...
who is evolving, who is moving through stages faster than
i want her to...who wants to wear eyeliner...
who is spending her summer doing sleepovers
and printing clarinet music and calendar sheets to prepare
for grade eight...

sigh...

and at the same time, i was secretly pleased
to see one box of bratz and barbies,
saved and shoved safely under her bed...
because even 12-so-close-to-13
is not too old
to play.