Chapter 5

Chapter 1 - Infant

Chapter 2 - Toddler

Chapter 3 - Kid

Chapter 4 - Human who is more mature than their parents think and less mature than they think

Chapter 5 - Early Teens

Well, we've reached a new chapter in Amelia's life - her teen years.  While I don't like admitting it, she's ready.  She's ready for all the fun, the drama, the first loves, the freedoms, the first heartbreak, the temptations, the consequences, all of it.  She's not only ready for all of it.  She's going to be great at all of it.  She's so damn smart.  I don't even mean book smart...although she has the straight A receipts to confirm that order.  I mean life smart.  Emotionally smart.  She can read the room with the best of adults.  She knows when a friend needs to be cheered up and when a friend just needs a silent hug.  She knows Everett is going to annoy her because it is his God-given right and obligation as a younger sibling to do so.  She knows to knock him down when he's acting too cool and to help him back up when he's feeling too vulnerable.  She knows she's smart enough to form her own strong opinions and she knows her parents are smart enough that it's worth listening to theirs.  

I'm not saying she'll escape her teens unscathed. Her heart is too big to not catch shrapnel along the way.  I'm saying I have full confidence she'll make the right choices, have the right perspectives, and feel comfortable enough to ask the right questions....And if she doesn't, her parents will be there to cheer her up, giver her a hug, knock her down a peg, help her back up, and listen to her opinion.