And the Mom of the Year goes to...not me but I don't care.

Today is Friday. It is a school day. It is 10 am. The sounds of soft breathing float to my ear from the teenager lying in the bed next to me. She sleeps,  missing school,  and I don't care.   Last night was the opening night of the newest installment of Hobbit movies....but let me explain... two summers ago I stumbled across a blog called the Happy Family Movement you can read more about them here. They had started a summer bucket list where you actually write down all the stuff you wanted to do in the summer, and then check it off as you went. Simple. Brilliant. So I have been following them for while. Recently they have discussed giving their children experiences rather than stuff for their birthdays/holidays etc. Memories last a life time and don't take up shelf space. Simple. Brilliant. So in August JB and I talked about experiences rather than stuff for her birthday, and she chose to go to comicon for her birthday experience. Then right after Halloween, I asked her what she wanted for Christmas and without hesitation she stated she wanted to go to the midnight showing of the Hobbit. I agreed.  JB was SO EXCITED! She would ask me almost every day after Halloween if I had purchased tickets to the Midnight showing. She talked about it for days,  even to the point where she is trying to teach herself to read elvish runes...She asked me to make her a special outfit...she loves that it matches the bow she got from Uncle Shane and Aunt Amber for her birthday awhile back...

She needed a haircut anyway, so after her trim we had the hairstylist do her hair  in an elaborate braid...

 She is ALL in.

Some people I know have asked me why I let her do this. Why do I allow, let alone encourage this?  She is 14 years old and has no business playing dress up anymore. It's time for her to grow up and stop acting like she's a little girl in a princess dress. But the people who ask me this can't possibly see the joy that emanates from this girl through her imagination. She is constantly making up games and writing stories and creating creatures from other worlds. Why would I WANT to stop her from doing the thing that makes her the most happy? The teenage JB wears black clothes and is shy and doesn't talk to people. The costumed JB radiates confidence and will ask some random stranger in a crowded movie theater for a photograph.

The movie was entertaining, but strayed a lot from the book, and introduced a lot of elements that I was so-so with...but none of that matters. What truly matters is the experience. And now, the she-elf is lying in bed happily exhausted from being up until 3:30 in the morning. I truly thought about waking her up and forcing her to go to school, in fact, that WAS part of the deal, that if she went to the midnight show she would have to go to school the next day, but then I couldn't do it. I thought about how hard she works every single day doing homework 4+ hours every night (not counting the 1/2 hour of guitar practice each day.) How she really wishes she could run cross country, or participate in the science club, or continue dance lessons but can't because the school work is kicking her butt. I thought about next week and how it will be difficult for her to make up a missed day of school, and then I thought about her just being here. Right here. Right now. This moment. Warm and asleep, on her dad's side of the bed because we got really cold in the movie theater and he had an electric blanket on his bed and she doesn't. I don't know how many more moments like this I will have in this life time. I heard her breathing, I saw her sweet face, and I let her rest. School can wait. Right now,won't.