Why does Munchkin have Talking Heads in her iPod?

Raise your hand if your pretend older sister convinced you to stay at the beach through Tuesday and work from there.

And, also raise your hand if your pretend big sister conveniently has a lot of pull with your boss, and also is likely to be your boss in relatively short order:-).

So that explains where I was today when I should have been blogging. And where I will be tomorrow:-P.

But I have a very good reason for all of this. You see, it is August, and that means that summer is more than half over...and that means that we need to take advantage of the good weather that is left. And since it has been GORGEOUS down here for four days...ergo, so on and so forth, such and such, etc...

So...I have a random story from Friday's ride down here. Munchkin, Big Sis and I left pretty early (The Boy and Papa Bear drove down together later on...which is good, they don't get nearly enough quality time:-P). On the way, we were listening to Munchkin's iPod, and after a while we realized that she had a really eclectic set of songs on there. To be specific...here was what was on the docket:

Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
Clumsy - Our Lady Peace
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Dirty - Christina Aguilera
Rocket Queen - Guns N' Roses
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Shake Ya Tailfeather - Puff Daddy, Nellie, Murphy Lee
Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers
It's Alright - Big Head Todd and The Monsters
She - Gram Parsons

So, after a bit of this, a logical question arose...how the fuck did all of these songs find their way onto her iPod? This is not the first time that I have been totally floored by her taste in music...but the scope of her selections this time really took me by surprise.

How did this all end up on her iPod? Simple...The Brain Surgeon put it there...which was news to me and Big Sis both. They apparently had a conversation about music a LONG time ago, and he has been filling Munchkin's iPod with all kinds of stuff from all over the musical spectrum for a while now. Which I guess explains why she knows all the words to Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"...

Anyway, I thought that was cute...she has an amazing ability to form relationships with people in so many ways. She obviously sees The Brain Surgeon a lot, but that is sort of their thing, and gives them something to always talk about...she tells him the sorts of things that she likes and he finds more stuff, or other stuff that he thinks she would like based on that. I need to have a talk with him about the amount of sexual moaning in Rocket Queen, though...hmm.

However, her growing ability to attract older boys? Less cute... It has dawned on me this weekend that, physically, she has matured quite a bit in the last six months, and that she does NOT look 13. Girls, remember when you went through a growth spurt around that age? You finally got boobs, shot up about 6 inches and got really gangly and awkward for a while? Then when you get to 15 or older, you started to fill out, grew some hips and got curvier? (OK...some of us never went through a growth spurt and are still barely five feet tall...details...)

Well, she skipped right past the awkward, Olive Oyl stage. She is built much more like a 16 or 17 year old than a 13 year old. And, since she doesn't have braces, she is missing the obvious sign of being her age (her teeth are straight...I totally hit the jackpot on that..you know how much those things cost?!?!)

So far there hasn't been anything that has led to any real trouble, but I don't necessarily like the way it is trending. It's OK when she is in school...everyone knows how old everyone else is there...but when she is with "summer friends" that she has maybe only known for a month or two, things get sketchy.

When boys that are 13 and 14 and even 15 get all tongue-tied and awkward around here I find it cute. When I feel like she is drawing attention from boys with driver's licenses? Yea...not so much at all. As usual, she hasn't done anything to make me think she isn't totally and completely capable of handling herself in any social situation.

But I worry. I can't help it...it is the Mom in me:-)