There are times that discrepancy between what I think of my child is capable of and what my child is actually capable of, hits me like a ton of bricks. There are little things, like when I was holding the baby bottle for her to drink and then she suddenly would push me away and hold it just fine herself, or when I was tying her shoes in kindergarten and she explained with hands on hips that she could do that herself. As a parent, of course I think my kids are capable of anything, on the other hand, I am not always up to date on what they no longer need me to do for them. Zach is still my baby… I think it’s possible he may NEVER push me away while tying his shoes… like possibly even for his college graduation. Abby, however, is growing so fast, is able to do so much more each day. I am proud, certainly, but I am also a little sad. This time it was not shoe laces or Advent bottles but instead, it was Microsoft Office!
As we were about to board the plane from JFK to Abu Dhabi, we learned that Allyson was upgraded to First Class. Abby’s jaw hit the ground. She just kept saying, “Allyson is in first class,” like she couldn’t make sense of it. Abby and I sat in our lovely business class seats together, in our own little pod. The rack rate for each of our seats is in the $8000 range (thank you SRA!) but she was acting like we were strapped to the top of the plane compared to First Class. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t being bratty, but the adoration in her voice about the seats 20 feet away was a little disturbing. “Abby!,” I said, “For goodness sakes! I am sure the seats up there are very similar.” That’s when my own jaw began to drop. She went on a ten minute MONOlogue about the features in First Class. The larger seats, the pajamas they give you, etc. My eyes wide, “How do you know this?,” I asked her. Her response: “OOOOO, because this morning I went on Etihadairways.com and clicked on some of the images. Then I opened a word document and cut and pasted a bunch of the pictures into word. Then I cut a bunch of the words and made a paper on First Class. Also, there is luxurious service and you can turn your seats all the way around. OH and I was a little worried about the weather with all these storms ‘they’ve’ been talking about and so I checked the weather on weather.com. The weather in the Arabian Sea… I mean Gulf, is totally clear, no problem. We should be fine.” She sat for a while, then wistfully said, “Allyson is the luckiest girl in the world… (long pause), well… in our family at least” I guess she didn’t get the memo that our other cousin is off to New Zealand on an awesome adventure. As she was rambling on about Etihad, I began to get a knot in my stomach. Not because Abby is becoming more proficient on the computer but because I now realize we have to set parental controls, etc. She was excited thinking about first class service and I was mortified wondering what kind of results she could get on google. Another milestone… another chip away at the “little girl-ness” of my little girl! It’s not right!! How do I have a little kid who needs my help to log her into Webkinz one day and then suddenly is making informational pamphlets on the features offered on a Middle Eastern Airlines?? 
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